A Study on the Effects of ‘Picture Books Read Through Music’ Activities on the Theory of Mind, Empathy Abilities, and Musical Attitudes of 4-Year-Old Children

Objectives This study aimed to investigate the impact of 'Picture Books Read Through Music' activities on children's theory of mind, empathy abilities, and musical attitudes.. Methods This purpose, 6-year-old children attending H Kindergarten in M District, Incheon (experimental group: 17, comparison group: 18) were selected as research subjects. The experimental group participated in 'Picture Books Read Through Music' activities, while the comparison group engaged in picture book reading activities based on the Nuri curriculum's life themes for a total of 12 sessions over 12 weeks. Pre- and post-tests were conducted using tools to measure theory of mind, empathy abilities, and musical attitudes, and the collected data were analyzed using independent sample T-tests with SPSS 21.0 software. Results First, the 'Picture Books Read Through Music' activities showed a significant difference in improving the ability to understand changes in perspective, a sub-factor of theory of mind, with the experimental group scoring significantly higher than the comparison group. Second, in terms of empathy abilities, the experimental group showed higher averages than the comparison group, indicating a positive impact on enhancing empathy abilities. Third, in the area of musical attitudes, Conclusions The 'Picture Books Read Through Music' activities not only had a positive impact on the development of children's theory of mind and empathy abilities but also on their musical attitudes, suggesting its significance as an effective teaching-learning method.