The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of young children’s verbal
expression on their prosocial behaviors. The subjects were 44 four-year-olds and 42
five-year- olds in nine kindergartens and daycare centers located in Gyeonggi-do. The
instruments used were Verbal Expressiveness Inventory(Jang, 1981) and PBSYC for
teachers(Kim, 2003). The major findings of the study were as follows: Concerning the
correlations between their verbal expression and prosocial behavior, those who had better
verbal expression showed more prosocial behavior. The relationships between the
subfactors of verbal expression and those of prosocial behavior were inconsistent to some
extent, but there was a positive correlation between the two overall. So it could be said
that a better verbal expresson leads to better prosocial behavior. From the findings of the
study on the effect of the verbal expression on prosocial behavior, it can be concluded
that young children who have better verbal expression are more excellent at building a
good peer relationship, helping their peers, being considerate, making themselves
accessible, sharing their own belongings with peers and regulating their own emotions.
This study is expected to assist early childhood education institutions to provide young
children with a variety of educational activities geared toward improving verbal
expression to improve their prosocial behaviors. Also, this study is expected to help
teachers to improve the prosocial behavior of young children in diverse ways.