Effectiveness of storytelling in group discussion on anxiety of preschool children

Early childhood or preschool age is one of the most important periods of childhood development. This period of life is associated to many problems. One of these problems is anxiety. There are numerous therapies for pharmaceutical and non-pharmacotherapy for the treatment of anxiety. Storytelling as a new method is an effective treatment to reduce anxiety. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of storytelling by group discussion on anxiety of preschool children. The present semi experimental study was conducted on preschool children in kindergarten in the city of Qaen in 2017. Clustering randoml Sampling was done. 60 children were randomly assigned into two groups of intervention and control. For the children in the  interventiongroup, seven sessions of 60 minutes of storytelling were conducted. However, in the control group of children, they received the same previous program. Data were collected by Spence Anxiety Questionnaire. Data were analyzed  by using of analysis of covariance In SPSS version 18. The results of this study showed that out of 60 children, 28 were female and 32 were boys. The mean age of children in the  intervention  group was 6.5 ± 1.2 and in the control group was 6.3 ± 1.5 years. The obtained results indicated the effectiveness of Storytelling in the anxiety (p=0.041) Storytelling as a non-pharmacological approach is a good way to reduce anxiety. Therefore, it is recommended that nursing educators use this method to reduce children's anxiety.