The Effect of Storytelling Integrated with Activities on Enhancing Executive Functions (EF) in Early Childhood

Early childhood who ages 0–6 years is a critically developmental stage that requires support from families, teachers, educational personnel, and the local community to ensure holistic and age-appropriate development. This research aimed to: (1) enhance awareness and understanding of teachers in Tao-ngoi Subdistrict regarding the impact of storytelling-based learning experiences on the development of executive function (EF) in early childhood and (2) compare preschool children's EF skills consisting of working memory, cognitive flexibility and goal-directed persistence before and after participating in Storytelling Integrated with Activities. The sample consisted of 46 pre-school children in child development centers of the Tao-ngoi Subdistrict Administrative Organization during the second semester of the 2024 academic year. The research instruments were storytelling-based learning experience plans and an EF behavior assessment form for early childhood. Collected data were statistically analyzed by using mean, standard deviation, t-test dependent and effect size measured by Cohen’s d

The findings revealed that after participating in the storytelling-based learning experiences, the children’s EF skills improved significantly, especially on working memory and cognitive flexibility at a very good level, while goal-directed persistence reached a good level. Storytelling Integrated with Activities could promote the children’s EF including working memory, cognitive flexibility and goal-directed persistence with both statistical significance at .05 and practical significance.