Abstract:

Over the last decade, research papers have analysed the development of children's fine motor skills as an important aspect of early childhood education and have shown the effects of arithmetic skills and touch-screen tablet use on the development of children's fine motor skills (Asakawa et al., 2019; Crollen, Noël, 2015; Souto et al., 2020). However, we greatly lack educational experiences that promote the development of fine motor skills in children's musical activities. The article presents the survey, which aims to reveal the peculiarities of developing fine motor skills of 4–5-year-old children using exercises of the BAPNE method in musical activities. The BAPNE method has been used as an innovative educational approach in early childhood music education. The presented study used a participatory action research design; three cycles of action research were conducted. During musical lessons the activity of 42 four-to-five-year old children, who attended educational institutions in different towns of Lithuania (Vilnius and Kaunas), was observed. The data collection strategy was mixed: observation and interviews with 17 children were carried out. The analysis of quantitative data was based on a method of qualitative content analysis. The data of the qualitative research on the development of fine motor skills of children aged 4-5 years using the BAPNE method disclosed two groups: using rhythmic body movement, chanting and singing in unison, children's wrist movement, finger activity and eye-hand coordination are developed using the BAPNE method exercises of "Duck's Bill" and "Finger Crossing" (Group 1), as well as the exercises of "Manual Dissociation" and "Finger Alteration" (Group 2). The results of the study contribute to the growing understanding that the BAPNE approach can have a significant impact on the development of fine motor skills in young children.

Keywords:

Early childhood music education, BAPNE method, fine motor skills, body movement, chanting, singing.