The Influence of the Dance Creativity on Executive Functions of Early Childhood

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The Influence of the Dance Creativity on Executive
Functions of Early Childhood
Elindra Yetti, Erie Siti Syarah, Muktia Pramitasari, S. Syarfina, Debie Susanti
Universitas Negeri Jakarta
Jakarta, Indonesia
elindrayetti@unj.ac.id, eriesitis_s2@mahasiswa.unj.ac.id, muktiapramitasari_s2@mahasiwa.unj.ac.id,
syarfina_s2@mahasiswa.unj.ac.id, drdebiesusanti@yahoo.com
Abstract—The purpose of this study is to find out the
influence of dance creativity on executive functions of early
childhood. The research method used is a quasi-experimental
design with paired data t-test analysis. This study was conducted
on 50 respondents aged 5-6 years. The results showed that t hit >
t table, sig <0.01 there was a significant difference between before
and after the dance creativity activities implemented. Based on
the result of this study, it can be concluded that dance creativity
can significantly influence the executive function of early
childhood. Further research can be carried out by involving
other variables that affect executive functions along with other
dance creativity activities.
Keywords—dance creativity; executive functions; early
childhood
I. INTRODUCTION
It has become common knowledge that adult behavior is
determined by the period of human development when they are
in early childhood. Felver stated that executive functions (EFs)
variable is the most important thing among all psychological
variables that influence the development of healthy children
and adolescents [1]. EFs deals with family care processes that
are needed to intentionally change behavior, pay attention, and
act in ways that have become habit. EFs skill which is
developed comprehensively allows children to manage their
behavior, take care of themselves and others through decision
making and non-impulsive actions. Other important skills that
depend on EFs such as concentrating on tasks, following rules,
and achieving long-term goals and objectives. EFs is very
important for healthy development in recent studies, Diamond
in his research concluded that EFs skill is one of the most
important aspects of ability for someone success in the twenty-
first century [2]. His findings also highlighted the importance
of understanding and increasing EF on childhood and
adolescence.
Benavides-Nieto, Romero-López, Quesada-Conde, &
Corredor stated that in several studies there is relationship
among EFs deficits, psychopathological and difference
behavioral disorders [3]. Research on EFs development in
children has increased in the past decade. The increasing of
social competence and academic achievement are also related
to EFs. The study tried to understand the relationship between
executive functions and social competence in 5-year-old
children. It’s involved 119 students (60 boys and 59 girls) from
the age of 5 years who were enrolled in the last year of
kindergarten in Granada. The result showed that there was a
positive relationship between social skills and EFs. This fact
showed that it was very important to increase EFs in children
and learn the factors influenced.
One of the most important focuses on research about EFs is
the relationship between EFs development and school
readiness and academic achievement. Studies that included in
the Abreu Research Topics provide further evidence of the
value of EFs predictions in academic learning, and especially
reading [4]. Critically, they also clarify the importance of the
EFs process for children's mathematics learning, and show how
the role of EFs can increase when children in playgroup to
kindergarten [5] and then decrease in adolescence [6]. Some
findings are mapping the effect of EFs on academic learning
are very important for designing effective interventions that
target strategic time points in their development. Existing
research indicated that the training program can effectively
improve academic achievement [7], although socio-
environmental factors, such as housing conditions, can impact
the effects of cognitive intervention in children [8].
Cognitive development that related to executive function in
each child is sometimes not as expected by parents because of
several influencing factors such as heredity, environmental
factors, maturity factors and the like. Therefore, the best and
most enjoyable stimulation for early childhood is needed to
improve executive functions from an early age, such as through
dance creativity activities and developing self-confidence.
Giguere, in his research from two schools in the United
States found that twenty-seven sub-categories found good
improvement results in dance creativity, such as making dance
movements or organizing dance movements [9]. It was proven
that cognition processes work well during the creative process
in the dance, and there is a detailed description of the
characteristics of the cognitive activity. The next finding is,
regarding some cognitive strategies involved in the creative
process in dance, as seen in this study, it requires a group to
carry out dance creativity activities, and cannot be done only
by an individual. The last finding is that children involved in
dance creativity are involved in communication, not only
verbal and nonverbal communication, but also forms of verbal
and non-verbal communication which is termed as "active
1st International Conference on Arts and Design Education (ICADE 2018)
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Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 255
258

discussion" research. These appear as subcategories in several
research categories
Recent experimental research indicates that both acute and
chronic aerobic exercise promote children’s executive function.
Overall, engagement in physical activity (or more specific
aerobic exercise) is also a cognitive activity that recruits
higher-order brain regions and requires adaptive thinking.
Aerobic exercise, including motion and song, then, may be an
invaluable part of children’s development, and these findings
should persuade parents and educators to reconsider the
importance of these exercise [10].
Based on various problems regarding the executive
function of early childhood that have been explained, it is
important to conduct a research on the influence of dance
creativity activities on executive functions of early childhood.
The purpose of this study is to find out the influence of dance
creativity on executive functions of early childhood.
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
A. Executive Functions (EFs)
EFis the cognitive ability needed to control and regulate
thoughts, emotions and actions. Separation is often made
between cool components from EFs which explicitly involve
cognitive abilities such as arithmetic mental abilities
(mathematical numeracy skills) and hot components that reflect
the ability to regulate emotions such as being able to control
anger [11]. The executive function is basically located in the
prefrontal frontal lobe area with many connections between
neurons to the cortical, sub cortical, and brainstem areas. The
executive system is mediated by various tissues in the frontal,
parietal and occipital cortex, thalamus, and cerebellum. It is
related through a series of circuits that connect each region of
the central nervous system. Each circuit regulates special
functions. Circuits that are very responsible for coordinating
executive functions are located in the frontal lobe [12].
Scientific evidence of the development and consequences
of executive functions in the early years of human life convey
three important messages. First, executive function skills are
important structures in the brain for early development of both
cognitive and social capacity. Second, both normative
differences in the nature of individual development and the
impact of difficulties will significantly affect the development
of EFs for each child. Third, several interventions focused on
supporting the development of certain EFs skills have
demonstrated at least short-term effectiveness, with evidence
also emerging that EFs might have an impact on other aspects
of learning as well [13]. Kuhn suggested that EFs involves
cognitive activities at a higher level such as reasoning, making
decisions, monitoring critical thinking, and monitoring one's
cognitive development [14,15].
Based on several expert opinions, it can be concluded that
EF is a cognitive control which is a set of cognitive processes
(including attention control, inhibitory control, working
memory, cognitive flexibility, reasoning, problem solving, and
planning) needed for cognitive control of behavior, namely the
ability to choose and successfully monitor behavior that
facilitates the achievement of certain chosen goals.
B. Dance Creativity
Dance creativity for early childhood is an activity that
involves exploration of movement. The dance movement is
arranged according to the important and the closest themes to
the child's daily life. The emphasis on children's dance
creativity is to hone the child's sensitivity and aesthetic
experience. Early childhood education institutions can provide
a real experience for early childhood to become more aware of
the movements they see and learn in the world around them, try
it for themselves, and pay attention to how it feels to move or
dance [16].
Stinson also said that dance provides an opportunity for
early childhood to learn about themselves and show how they
feel about people, objects, and phenomena [16]. Purcel
explained that dancing benefits early childhood in three main
developmental aspects, namely, psychomotor development,
affective development, and cognitive development. The
benefits of each new movement that learned by children
provide a lot of information to children about their body's
abilities. In the same way, when children learn to dance, they
learn how their body works, they also learn how they feel at
work. Body movements are always a way of communicating
feelings. Creative movements in dance are a function of the
body's biological rhythms through dance. Children develop
self-control, especially in reactions to feelings such as anger,
fear and joy. Dance can also provide a means to communicate
feelings and be successful in sharing those feelings. Children
always feel successful with their expressions and begin to
appreciate differences. Besides, children learn about personal
space versus shared space (in dance formations) so that help
children to practice sharing ideas and compromise through
invaluable skills in the process of education for each child [17].
The synthesis of dance creativity activities is an exploratory
guide to movement concepts that designed to increase
children's awareness and understand the experience of physical
movements, which children are at the centre of. Creativity
involvement and challenges in doing dance are part of every
valuable experience for children.
III. METHODOLOGY
This study used quasi-experimental method with data
collection techniques through questionnaires on 50 respondents
in the Central Jakarta. The respondents were five-to six-year-
old-children which are in kindergarten level. The samples were
obtained using multistage cluster random sampling technique.
The data was analyzed by using statistical analysis of paired t-
tests calculated by the SPSS program.
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
A. Result
The results of data analysis on 50 respondents before and
after the experiment of dance creativity activities can be seen in
the table below:
Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 255
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TABLE I. PAIRED T-TEST SAMPLES STATISTICS
Paired Samples Statistics
Mean
N
Std. Deviation
Std. Error Mean
Pair 1
pre
82.5800
50
5.81374
.82219
post
1.0908E2
50
15.76853
2.23001
The data in the table above shows the normal standard error
so that it is said that the data error rate is low and can be used
for paired t test.
TABLE II. PAIRED SAMPLES T-VELUE
Paired Samples Test
Paired Differences
t
df
Sig. (2-
tailed)
Mean
Std.
Deviation
Std. Error
Mean
95% Confidence
Interval of the
Difference
Lower
Upper
Pair
1
pre -
post
-2.65000E1
14.19866
2.00799
-30.53522
-22.46478
-
13.197
49
.000
If t hit = -13.197
t table = 2.660, Therefore
-13.197 > 2.660  t hit > t table, H0 is rejected means H1 is
accepted. Therefor there are significant differences between
before and after doing dance creativity activities.
TABLE III. PAIRED SAMPLES SIG (2-TAILED)
Paired Samples Correlations
N
Correlation
Sig.
Pair 1
pre & post
50
.441
.001
If using Sig (p-value) Sig. (2-tailed) = 00,1
then, 0,00 < 0,01
B. Discussion
The findings in this study note that before dance creativity
activities were applied, children's EFs were quite low; this was
related to a learning system that was less varied and less
attractive to children. Children often have difficulty in short-
term memory, lack of self-control, such as not understanding
the voice used inside or outside the classroom, difficulty
solving problems and lack of attention. This happened because
executive self-control at an early age is varied, fragile, and
bound to external stimulus situations with increased stability
achieved between the ages of 18 and 30 months [18]. In
preschoolers, executive functions can be distinguished by using
tasks that are appropriate to development, as adapted from
cognitive development of neuroscience. For example, working
memory, flexibility, and inhibitory skills can be discriminated
against in preschool children [19]. The development of
research on early childhood executive function shows more and
more evidence that different neurological and behavioral
disorder in preschoolers produce a unique pattern of executive
dysfunction [19-23].
The second finding on the results of the post-test of
children after being given dance creativity activities was that
the FEs of children increased significantly. Basically every
child likes music and moves, this is in accordance with the
findings of the study from Ilari that in more spontaneous
rhythmic movements found the response of children to music
and regular stimuli of metrics rather than speech [24].
Similarly, the results found in the study of Williams et al.
investigated the home music activities of parents of 3031
Australian children who participated in Growing Up in
Australia: the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children
Studies (LSAC). The findings of Williams et al. research show
that home music activities between parents and children play a
role in supporting children's development [25].
It is also supported by research conducted by Putranto,
there is a significant increase in short-term memory function
after the implementation of brain exercise 3 times a week for 2
months in children from low economic status families [26].
FEs can be improved through dance creativity activities that
involve motion and song. Research Moreno et al., has designed
training methods that can be used to improve mental health and
to test the efficacy of educational programs [27]. However,
several studies have shown a broad transfer of such training to
performance in cognitive activities that are not trained. The
findings report the effects of two interactive computerized
training programs developed for preschoolers: one for music
and one for visual arts. After only 20 days of training, only
children in the music group showed improved performance on
measures of verbal intelligence. Music easily stimulates
children to spontaneously move in creative dance. 90% of the
sample showed this increase. The findings showed that transfer
of high-level cognitive skills in early childhood can be done so
that exploration of dance movements produces many variations
of creative dance movements.
Research by Janus, Lee, Moreno, and Bialystok has
identified an increase in performance on executive control
tasks for bilingual in those who have music training [28].
Using an intervention design in 57 children aged 4-6 years
(matched for age, maternal education, and cognitive scores)
with instruction programs in music or French conversation in
20 days. The results of the discussion in terms of the benefits of
executive control arise from language and music training. The
research provides evidence that music in dance creativity
activities can affect children's EFs.
V. CONCLUSION
Based on the findings and discussion of the results of the
study, it can be concluded that dance creativity activities can
affect the Executive Functions (FES) of early childhood.
Furthermore, research can be conducted involving other
variables that affect the Executive Functions together with
dance creativity activities.
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