The Effectiveness of Traditional Storytelling on 5 Year-Old Children's Addition Skill in Klang Valley

Ooi, Yi Xin (2026) The Effectiveness of Traditional Storytelling on 5 Year-Old Children's Addition Skill in Klang Valley. Effectiveness of Storytelling Techniques on Addition. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

In early childhood education, storytelling is widely recognised as an effective pedagogical tool. However, Malaysian preschools predominantly rely on traditional, rote-learning methods and repetitive drills to teach foundational mathematics. This heavy reliance on workbook-based drills often limits meaningful conceptual understanding. Furthermore, there is a distinct lack of empirical evidence regarding the effectiveness of narrative approaches on specific arithmetic operations such as addition within the fast-paced urban Malaysian context. To address this gap, this study employed a quantitative, one-group pre-test and post-test design using purposive sampling. The study involved 27 five-year-old children from a kindergarten in the Klang Valley. The intervention utilised the storybook “The Mission of Addition”. Data were collected using a kinesthetic “Box-and-Ball” assessment to measure addition skills alongside a 5-point teacher observational scale to measure behavioural and emotional engagement across three time points. A paired-samples t-test revealed no statistically significant improvement in the children’s “addition” scores following the 30-minute intervention (t(26) = -.328, p = .746) despite the assessment tool demonstrating high test-retest reliability (r = .857). However, observational data revealed that children displayed very high engagement at the beginning of the story (M = 4.67) which significantly dropped towards the final pages (M = 2.30) due to cognitive overload and mental fatigue. While a single, short-term storytelling session does not instantly improve computational skills, it serves as a crucial affective primer that reduces maths anxiety. Educators should integrate storytelling longitudinally alongside structured practice.