Background: Creativity, speech, attention and memory each have a significant impact on learning early in life and improving these skills in preschool have particular importance.
Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of creative play on creativity, speech quality, verbal memory and students' attention.
Methodology: The type of research was quasi-experimental with pretest-posttest design with control group. The statistical population of the study was all preschool students in Kazerun city of Fars province and From this population, 30 novices were selected by available sampling method and were randomly divided into experimental and control groups. From Ray Audio-Verbal Memory Tests by Andre Rey (1960), Toulouse-Pyron test by Toulouse-Pyron (1986), Speech assessment test (with 5 objective and main indicators) in the form of descriptive speech and free speech using images of the Child Recognition Test (CAT) created by Leopold Block and Sonia Block in 1949 and researcher-made creativity test was used as a measurement tool. The research process was such that pre-tests were performed before the training of both groups. The experimental group then participated in 24 creative drama sessions, but the control group did not receive any training. After a three-month period (24 sessions), post-test was taken from both groups. The collected data were analyzed using multivariate and univariate analysis of covariance.
Conclusions: Based on the findings, creative drama has had a significant effect on creativity, attention, components of lexical richness, number of words per minute of descriptive speech, and total number of words, the length of the longest sentence, number of dependent paragraphs of free speech and had no significant effect on other components of speech quality and verbal memory.