Introducing Filipino Games To Promote Peer Play Interaction

Introducing Filipino Games To Promote Peer Play Interaction

Long ago, Filipino games have been part of the Filipino pastime. These games, being cooperative by nature, seem to promote close social relationships in the family, in school and in the community. But nowadays, Filipino children rarely play these games. The present generation has been exposed to a variety of games in handheld technological devices that could lead to less interest in playing Filipino games, or other social play. This action research aimed to find out how teaching Filipino games to kindergarten students, help promote peer play interaction in a class of eleven children, aged 3 to 4 years old, in a private preschool in Metro Manila. They were observed to do solitary and parallel play very often, and hardly do associative or cooperative play. This research is qualitative and data analysis is limited to descriptive statistics to show difference of peer interaction between pre- and post-intervention. The researchers used observation, video recording, anecdotal records, and a Peer Play Checklist in data gathering. Results show that Filipino Games are effective in promoting peer interaction among children. More of the children were able to cooperate and collaborate with their peers, listened better, encouraged peers to join in, were more considerate, and responded to ideas more often. This implies that preschool teachers can teach 3 to 4 year old children Filipino games to promote peer interaction or socialization.