The therapeutic effect of playing with crickets on children in the senior class

Participants

From May 15 to June 15, 2024, convenience sampling was used to select students from two senior kindergarten classes at a kindergarten in Heze, Shandong. The inclusion criteria were: (1) Aged 5–7 years; (2) Normal physical and mental development, with no congenital physiological diseases, autism spectrum disorders, or other conditions that impair social interaction, cognition, or participation in normal group activities; (3) No history of insect allergies or severe fear of insects, and able to interact normally with crickets; (4) Full participation in the 30-day program.

Methods

The experiment utilized adult male two-spotted field crickets (Gryllus bimaculatus)(He, 2020;Ying & Liu, 1995), a species widely distributed in southern China. Each cricket was housed individually in a dedicated cage to prevent intraspecific competition. Every participating child was provided with one cricket and, under the guidance of teachers, participated in 30-minute daily group observation sessions during class. These sessions included activities such as listening to chirping sounds and participating in traditional cricket fighting activities. Additionally, 30 min of daily care tasks were conducted between classes, comprising feeding with rice, fruits, and vegetables, as well as cage cleaning. Any deceased individuals were promptly replaced to ensure uninterrupted intervention.

Tools

The therapeutic outcomes for each participating child before and after the course were recorded by teachers through a self-developed structured questionnaire (seen in the Supplementary). This scale was validated in a pilot study (Cronbach's α = 0.894, Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin = 0.763) and consists of 35 items across four dimensions: learning outcomes (6 items), emotional states (10 items), social interactions (10 items), and lifestyle habits (9 items). These items assess both positive and negative impacts. All data were anonymized through coding, with only the research team having access to the original data.

Statistical methods

Data were entered using MATLAB. After removing outliers, missing entries were imputed using multiple imputation methods, and categorical variables were standardized using one-hot encoding. Next, positive and negative impact scores were calculated for the four questionnaire dimensions (learning outcomes, emotional states, social interactions, and lifestyle habits), and net scores for each dimension were derived by calculating the difference between these scores for analysis. Finally, using age, gender, and the net scores of the four dimensions as independent variables, a binary logistic regression model was employed to analyze their impact on the psychological changes in young children following their interaction with crickets.

Multiple response analysis of young children's interaction with crickets across four dimensions: learning outcomes, emotional states, social interactions, and lifestyle habits

A multiple response analysis conducted on the options for positive impacts across the four dimensions revealed the corresponding results, which are presented in Table 1. Specifically, in the dimension of learning effectiveness, the item of “cultivating observational and experimental skills” achieved the highest response rate, which accounted for 35% of the total responses. In the dimension of emotional state, the item of “increasing curiosity and a sense of joy” showed the highest response rate, which was recorded as 25.6%. In the dimension of social interaction, the item of “enhancing communication and cooperation with peers” presented the highest response rate, which reached 23.2%. Similarly, in the dimension of lifestyle habits, the item of “cultivating the habit of careful observation” obtained the highest response rate, which was calculated as 23.5%.

Descriptive analysis of net scores across four dimensions

An analysis of the net scores across the four dimensions reveals that the “Lifestyle Habits” dimension has the greatest positive impact, followed by “Emotional State” and “Social Interaction” with “Learning Outcomes” ranking last (seen in Table 2).

Binary logistic regression model

To investigate the psychological changes in young children following cricket-playing activities, this study employed a binary logistic regression model to analyze the effects of multiple factors—including age, gender, learning outcomes, emotional state, social interaction, and lifestyle habits—on whether participants believed that insect characteristics influenced their psychological regulation. The results are shown in Table 3.

Model validation

Our model demonstrates outstanding performance. With an AUC of 0.8171, it significantly surpasses the 0.5 baseline of random guessing and exceeds the 0.7 threshold for acceptable fit. This indicates that the selected independent variables effectively explain the variation in the dependent variable. Consequently, the model exhibits high accuracy in predicting whether the subjects are 'affected'.

Analysis of the impact of cricket therapy on learning outcomes among senior kindergarten children

This 30-day intervention study revealed that interaction with crickets exerts bidirectional regulatory effects on preschool children's physical and psychological development. Regarding learning outcomes, direct observation of crickets made abstract concepts from picture books more concrete about their morphological characteristics and ecological habits, thereby enhancing children's scientific understanding of insects. Simultaneously, simple experiments involving cricket responses to different environments improved children's scientific inquiry skills. However, risks of classroom attention distraction and concentration decline were observed, potentially attributable to immature prefrontal cortex limitations in maintaining goal-directed behavior under sustained sensory stimulation (Banich et al., 2024).

Analysis of the effects of cricket therapy on the emotional state of senior kindergarten children

In terms of emotional state, the high heterogeneity of crickets in appearance and behavior naturally triggers cognitive conflict in young children, sparking cross-species curiosity and exploratory drive. The continuous, monotonous "chirping" emitted by crickets exhibits distinct "white noise" characteristics at the audio level. Psychological research indicates that white noise effectively masks sudden environmental stimuli, reduces external distractions, thereby lowering anxiety levels and enhancing focus. Thus, the presence of crickets not only captures children's attention but also facilitates emotional soothing and attention regulation through the "soundscape" environment. Simultaneously, through caring for and observing crickets, children gain a sense of accomplishment from successfully tending to them and discovering behavioral changes. Through daily care and observation, children developed a stable bond with their crickets, fostering a sense of being "needed." This positive experience gradually enhances their sense of self-worth, directly boosting life satisfaction and self-esteem, thereby achieving positive psychological regulation.

Analysis of the impact of cricket therapy on social interaction among senior kindergarten children

Traditional social support usually derives from interpersonal interactions with family members, peers, and teachers, whereas animal-assisted therapy transcends species boundaries and facilitates the development of secure attachment relationships between humans and animals, thus forming a unique form of cross-species social support. Its core advantage lies in its non-judgmental and low-pressure nature: animals do not make subjective evaluations of young children's behaviors or expressions, nor do they involve such complex issues as competition, conflict or exclusion that frequently arise in human interactions, which enables animals to provide children with stable and pure emotional bonds and psychological support. Meanwhile, as low-risk mediating animals, crickets are suitable for young children to conduct continuous observation and exploration. They also enable children to cultivate empathy in low-pressure interactions by paying attention to the living conditions of crickets. For instance, in the process of feeding crickets and observing their growth, children can understand the basic needs of living creatures and gradually develop concern and empathy for other forms of life. Crickets can also act as a kind of “social currency” that encourages young children to initiate communication and cooperation with their peers. By collectively discussing the behavioral phenomena they observe and the practical problems encountered during feeding, and by dividing tasks and collaborating to complete feeding and cleaning duties, children can gain a strong sense of support and belonging from the group, as well as a sense of accomplishment derived from problem-solving. Bandura's social learning theory emphasizes that children's social behaviors are acquired through observation and imitation in social interactions. While traditional research has mostly focused on interpersonal contexts, this study provides a natural cross-species social context that allows young children to improve their indirect imitative learning by observing the interactive behaviors of crickets. This also offers a new research perspective for social domain education in early childhood education.

Analysis of the impact of cricket therapy on the lifestyle habits of senior kindergarten children

The biophilia hypothesis also suggests that ongoing contact with nature helps foster healthy lifestyle habits. The crickets effectively activated children's naturalistic intelligence, enabling keen identification and insight into unique biological characteristics, behavioral patterns, and ecological relationships. This transferred to improved observation and perception of subtle changes in phenological rhythms and interpersonal relationships in daily life. Yet excessive cricket engagement disrupted routines, manifesting as midday hyperactivity and mealtime resistance.

To address the aforementioned negative impacts, the following strategies are recommended when integrating cricket- and other insect-based interaction activities into kindergarten curricula: adopt integrated activity design, deconstruct cricket interaction into segmented task modules to moderate stimulation intensity and reduce children's cognitive load; hold micro-funeral ceremony, bury the dead cricket and build a tombstone to help children understand life and death correctly; organize feeding teams to take turns to feed, clean and observe, to improve cooperation and avoid conflict with peers; establish a cricket observation schedule, clearly define the time for appreciation and play, and use a timer to strictly control the time, in order to develop children's time planning ability and develop healthy routines; strengthen the home-school cooperation mechanism, invite parents and children to complete the observation record named Cricket Diary together, which can enhance the parent-child relationship, ensure the participation of activities, consolidate the learning results and monitor the addiction tendency; develop differentiated curricula by combining cricket appreciation with role-playing, story conception and picture book creation to accommodate the interests of different children.

The regulatory role of gender in cricket therapy on early childhood development

The study also identified moderating effects of gender in how cricket interaction influences child development. Across nearly all differentiated indicators, male children demonstrated significantly higher levels of both positive and negative manifestations compared to female children. The gender moderation effect may be attributed to sociocultural expectations. Previous research indicates gender differentiation in attitudes toward insects emerges around age 6 (Ayuko, 2007). Within the Chinese cultural context, crickets are traditionally perceived as "men's toys," where female engagement with such organisms may be considered inappropriate. Parents and educators may unconsciously provide more encouragement for exploratory behaviors in boys while emphasizing "maintaining cleanliness" or "safety precautions" for girls, indirectly suppressing deeper female participation.

Limitations of the study

The sample of this study was restricted to senior kindergarten children enrolled in a single kindergarten within a county-level region, and the research methods relied mainly on teacher observations and a self-designed scale, which may entail a certain degree of subjective bias among respondents. Meanwhile, the lack of a control group in this study has also exerted a certain impact on the rigor of the research conclusions. Future research is recommended to expand the sample in terms of size, grade level, and geographical coverage, adopt a controlled experimental design, and employ well-established assessment scales such as the Beck Anxiety Inventory and the Fatigue Severity Scale, as well as non-invasive physiological indicators including blood pressure, cortisol, α-salivary amylase, heart rate variability, and functional magnetic resonance imaging. In addition, future studies may select more popular and environmentally suitable insect species for educational settings, such as butterflies, fireflies, rhinoceros beetles, and stag beetles, and conduct long-term follow-up and systematic evaluation of their therapeutic effects.