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Evaluation of the effects of creative movement program (LEAP!) in kindergarten children
Date Issued
2019
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Journal
ISSN
0883-6612
Citation
Chan, K. P. C., Fong, T. C. T., Lum, S. Y. D., Wong, M. P. L., & Ho, R. T. H. (2019). Evaluation of the effects of creative movement program (LEAP!) in kindergarten children. In Annals of Behavioral Medicine (Ed.). Society of behavioral medicine 2019 annual meeting abstracts. 40th Annual Meeting & Scientific Sessions of the Society of Behavioral Medicine, Washington, DC (pp. 561). Oxford University Press.
Type
Conference Paper
Abstract
Introduction: Creativity facilitates children to learn, use their knowledge, practice their abilities/skills, and express their ideas and emotions in different ways. Movement can promote preschoolers’ creativity because skills in the kinesthetic modality are most practiced at preschool age. The LEAP! program is a creative movement intervention that facilitates positive and holistic development for
young children. This study aims to examine the effects of the LEAP! program in
improving kindergarten students’ social competence, emotion development, and
creativity in movement.
Research Design: A mixed-method, pre-post stratified sampling design was adopted in this study. Two cohorts of Chinese kindergarten K2 (n = 173) and K3 (n = 188) students were recruited from 8 kindergartens in Hong Kong, and the LEAP! program was implemented in four of the kindergartens. The evaluation period lasted for one school semester. Parents and teachers of all participants completed assessments on early development, strength, and difficulties of the children at the start (T0) and end (T1) of the school semester. A random subgroup of 32 students joined an in-depth qualitative analysis of their movement creativity using the Torrance’s Thinking Creatively in Action and Movement
scale at T0 and T1.
Results: Both K2 and K3 students in the intervention group showed significant and substantial improvement (partial η2 = 0.15 - 0.51, p < 0.05) in their creativity in movement, especially in fluency and originality. However, the control group showed significant improvements at T1 in overall social competence and teacher-rated total difficulties for the K2 students but not the K3 students. There was
no significant group difference in the total difficulties as rated by the parents.
Conclusions: The study findings suggest beneficial effects of the LEAP! program in boosting the levels of creativity of the kindergarten students. The reverse intervention effects in social competence and total difficulties for the K2 children may be attributed to the increased levels of expressivity and creativity in verbal and non-verbal communications, which could possibly be misunderstood by their parents and school teachers because of the culturally instilled preference for well-behaved children. Further longitudinal studies are needed to evaluate the long-term effects of the LEAP! program in other contexts.
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