ABSTRACT
This study critically examines the influence of music, movement, and creative arts on the emotional expression and physical development of young children attending pre-primary schools within the diverse and culturally rich Oredo Local Government Area (LGA) of Edo State. The research aims to comprehensively understand how these engaging and stimulating creative activities function as robust predictors of children's emotional resilience, social development, and overall physical well-being within the dynamic educational setting. To guide the study five(5) research questions were drawn which are:What is the role of musical engagement in fostering emotional development, What is the relationship between the combined use of music, movement, and creative arts and the overall emotional well-being of young children, What are the variations that contribute to the way children respond to music movement and creative arts in terms of emotional expression and physical development, How does teacher training and expertise in incorporating music, movement, and creative arts into early childhood education programs affect the outcomes in terms of emotional expression and physical development, What are the potential barriers or challenges in implementing music movement and creative arts programs in early childhood education settings? In conducting this study, a descriptive survey research desigh was used and the sampling technique was the simple random sampling techique.The population was made up of all teachers in public and private nursery schools in Oredo Local Government Area of Edo state. The sample size was 60 respondents selected through convenience sampling technique, and the instrument used in data collection was a questionnaire to elicit responses from the respondents, the data collected from respondents was analyzed using the mean and standard deviation. The result of this findings revealed that: Teacher’s training and expertise in incorporating music movement and creative art into early childhood education programs positively impact children’s emotional expression and physical development, The level of teacher’s training and expertise in integrating music, movement and creative art correlate with the effectiveness of children’s emotion expression and physical development within early childhood educational programs, Educators with comprehensive training in music, movement and creative art are better equipped to facilitate meaningful experience that promote emotional expression and physical development in young children, Investing in professional development opportunities for educators to enhance their skills in incorporating music, movement and creative art will improve children’s emotional expression and physical development, and Teacher’s training and expertise in incorporating music movement and creative art into early childhood education programs positively impact children’s emotional expression and physical development, were some of the ways teachers’ training and expertise in incorporating music movement and creative arts into early Childhood education programs affect emotional expression and physical development. It was therefore recommended that Regular professional development programs should be implemented to help teachers integrate music, movement, and creative arts into their teaching practices. Collaboration between educators and arts specialists can combine practical skills with theoretical knowledge, ensuring effective arts education.
