Grace Selzing-Musa, Simi Davou Nyinyi, Samuel Solomon Danbauchi & Wisdom Katnap Sunday
Abstract
The purpose of the paper was to determine the impact of pretend play on nursery pupils’ self-regulation and resilience skills. The population of the study consisted of 4,052 pre-primary pupils from 76 public pre-primary schools in Bassa Local Government Area. The sampling technique for the study was the purposive sampling technique and the sample of the study consisted of 40 pre-school pupils with 20 pupils each in group ‘A’ and group ‘B’, which were the experimental and control groups respectively. Quasi-experimental non-equivalent pre-test post-test control group design was used for the study. Two hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. Researchers’ developed instrument tagged Emotional Skill Rating Scale (ESRS) was used for data collection, and data obtained was analyzed using One-Way Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) of two independent samples. Results showed that self-regulation and resilience skills of pre-primary pupils were enhanced as a result of pretend play intervention. The study concluded that provision of pretend play opportunities for children to engage with was effective in the development of self-regulation and resilience skills. It was recommended that nursery teachers should intentionally provide pretend play opportunities for young children to playfully learn self-regulation and resilience skills.