Psychomotor Development of Preschool Children by Means of Musical Improvisation

This article is a fragment of a research project devoted to the study of the impact of the systematical musical influence on the integrated mental development of children. In this paper, we present an unique approach to the use of a criteria-oriented system for assessing the levels of psychomotor development of preschool children. Three estimated levels (from high to low) of child's psychomotor development have been singled out. The range of characteristics of each level reflects the varying formation degree of the main indicators of the child's psychomotor development and allows to establish both actual features of this development and to predict potential opportunities. The analysis of the results of the ascertaining experiment revealed some motor failures in a significant number of children aged 6-7 years. The failures manifested themselves in: difficulties of performing movements in accordance with instructions; violation of motor coordination, motor memory, inability to perform movements in accordance with spatial, temporal and dynamic characteristics, in thedistortion of tempo, rhythm and amplitude of movements (32.15%). The development program ”Music of My Body” presented in the article is aimed at overcoming the psychomotor underdevelopment of children and bringing them to the level of optimally realized age opportunities by means of musical improvisation plastics.As a result of the program, the following tasks are solved: developing a sense of rhythm and motor skills, the formation of correct posture and expressiveness of the movements, and facial expressions of children. The results of the program revealed positive changes in the psychomotor development of children. As a result of the program, the number of preschool children who demonstrated the first level in the development of motor skills almost doubled (from 13.82% to 38.09% at the control stage). The number of children with a low level of psychomotor development decreased (from 32.15% to 13.09% at the control stage). The dynamics of development based on the results of the control phase was statistically significant at a high level of reliability (p <0.001). Keywords: psychomotor development, emotional and physical comprehension of music, ”sounding gestures”, improvisation, mimic intonation of music