Why is dance important for early childhood development?
Dance is an important activity for children’s development. It helps children to learn how their body and emotions interact, and can be used as a tool to work through difficult emotions like anger and frustration or as a fun way to channel emotions like excitement and joy.
Have you noticed how at a very early stage babies appear to take notice of music responding with various body gestures and movement often with a happy smile across their faces? Early childhood dance is a natural way to foster the benefits of these responses. The Australian Department of Health recommends toddlers should participate in 3 hours of physical activity per day and add an additional hour between the ages of 3-5. Regular movement experiences help children to develop movement control, coordination, and strength. Dancing encourages use of a wide set of core muscles which strengthens them and builds control. Through dance, children learn to coordinate and control their bodies and the movement helps them develop spatial awareness. When children are copying an adult or learning a set dance their listening and understanding skills are improved.
Are there other benefits beyond the physical benefits to dance? Dance potentially assists a number of other cognitive skills. The process of learning dance promotes problem, solving, communication, memory skills and abstract thinking.
At River City our early childhood dance classes learn a number of movements to build a dance routine. The process is very interactive and promotes a lot of fun in the learning process. There are additional benefits. They will also begin to pay more attention to others sharing the space.
Singing and playing music are part of a child’s process of growing up and learning what their bodies can do. It teaches children how to interact with other people, objects and the world around them. Singing has many surprising benefits for children. It is linked to stress reduction and general health. Singing together improves children’s behaviour and helps them bond – whatever the song or language. They can express their feelings of joy or excitement, of being scared or proud. Musical activity involves many different parts of the brain, so singing (which involves music and language) helps develop these areas . Get your child singing, dancing and playing music. It can benefit their development in so many ways and you’ll both be sure to have fun too!
