THE RESULTS OF ORGANIZING FREE PLAY ACTIVITIES ACCOMPANIED BY STORYTELLING TO PROMOTE SKILLS FOR BANI WORLD OF EARLY CHILDHOOD CHILDREN

Abstract

“BANI world” is a term coined to reflect the modern social landscape post-COVID-19. This fragile world is characterized by B–Brittle, A-Anxious, N–Nonlinear, and I-Incomprehensible. Living in a BANI world requires specific skills, including resilience, empathy and mindfulness, flexibility, and transparency and intuition. Some skills can be trained and promoted even in early childhood through appropriate activities. This study aimed to: 1) study the effects of free play activities combined with storytelling to promote BANI world skills in early childhood children, and 2) compare BANI world skills in early childhood children before and after organizing free play activities combined with storytelling. The sample consisted of 18 preschool children aged 4-5 years in kindergarten 2, second semester of the 2024 academic year, at Kukai Kindergarten School, Bangkok. The experiment lasted for 8 weeks, 3 days a week, and 45 minutes per day in free activities. The research instruments included a free play experience plan combined with storytelling to promote BANI world skills in early childhood children, and a BANI world skills assessment form. Data were analyzed by using the mean, standard deviation, percentage, t-test for independent samples, effect size and content analysis. The results of the research found that before the experiment, most of the preschool children had moderate level of BANI world skills, which was 22.72 percent, followed by low level at 22.22 percent and very low level at 5.56 percent. After the experiment, 100.00 percent of the preschool children had very good BANI world skills. The pre-experiment BANI world skills of the preschool children had an average of 16.00 with a standard deviation of 2.66 and an average of 25.83 with a standard deviation of 1.65 after the experiment. When comparing the differences in the preschool children's BANI world skills scores, it was found that the pre-experiment BANI world skills scores of the preschool children were significantly higher at the .05 level. The effect size was calculated using Cohen’s d index and the effect size was found to be large (d = 4.90). The content analysis found that after the experiment, the children displayed BANI world skills behaviors in all 3 areas: resilience, flexible thinking, and self-compassion. A minority of the children had improved skills but still needed further training in some areas.