There are so many big benefits that children can get from dance classes. We’ve talked about this before! But in this post, we want to focus on the really tiny people — your toddlers and your preschoolers. Dance offers so much goodness for them to tap into.
Cognitive Development
Since birth, your little wriggler has been on the move. Babies and very young children make sense of their world with movement, even before they learn to walk. They are kinesthetic learners first — which is why they’re putting things in their mouths, and getting stuck under sofas… All of this is to help them navigate their surrounds, and understand spatial awareness. And just as crawling helps babies form connections between the two hemispheres of the brain, dancing helps young children lay down more neurological pathways to help them with both physical and mental tasks.
Dance Central’s flagship program is Blueberries, a specially designed class to develop children aged 21 months to 4 years in a variety of ways. We teach them dance, but we also teach them music appreciation and rhythm through instrument play, and drama.
While it’s cute to watch your young child pretend to cross a river full of friendly crocodiles by leaping from rock to rock, drama and movement also teaches your child how to use movement to respond to ideas or obstacles. So taking our crocodile-avoidance exercise example, your child is learning about leg extension, balance and weight transference, spatial recognition, problem solving, and how to use his or her imagination.
Socialisation
And we’re not just talking about your child’s social life. Although to be fair, they do end up making friends for life. Some of our current students had started with DC since their Blueberries days. I can’t tell you how amazing it is to watch these tiny tots blossom into dynamic young people. But even more than that, they have grown up with each other, and they’re friends for life.
Dance teaches young children about cooperation, and about being part of something that is greater than themselves. Dance develops your child’s spatial awareness — and that includes paying more attention to how others share their space.
Confidence builder
The gift of a sense of achievement just can’t be overstated for young children. It’s why we clap and cheer them along when they take their first steps, or feed themselves with a spoon for the first time. Dance gives your child plenty of opportunities to overcome new, fun, and challenging experiences — and shine, shine, shine.
When you sneeze or breathe, your body just knows what to do. But ever notice that when you dance, you actually have to learn to tell your body to do what you want it to? Nothing like a totally unco moment to realise how little control we actually have over our own bodies! Our bodies often don’t do what we want them to.
By teaching dance to young children, we teach persistence and focus — and through that, they learn self-mastery of their physical, emotional, and mental faculties. These tikes are still learning how to verbally communicate, so giving them the gift of expression through movement broadens their “vocabulary”, releases creativity, and channels their boundless energy in more productive ways. Dance also releases endorphins. It literally makes your child happier.
Every year, over a thousand of our audience members look forward to watching our Blueberries perform on stage at our End of Year show. And our Blueberries have an absolute ball doing it. It’s not compulsory to be a part of the Show, but boy does everyone get a kick out of it!
>> Sign up to Blueberries today!
For more information about the benefits of dance for your child, visit:
- http://www.livestrong.com/article/214791-the-benefits-of-dance-for-kids/
- http://www.sheknows.com/parenting/articles/1071748/why-dancing-is-good-for-your-child-s-confidence
- http://www.ndeo.org/content.aspx?page_id=22&club_id=893257&module_id=55419
- http://www.dancetrain.com.au/dancing-is-good-for-kids/
- http://www.danceadvantage.net/why-dance-education/
- http://www.sheknows.com/parenting/articles/1071748/why-dancing-is-good-for-your-child-s-confidence
- http://www.whattoexpect.com/toddler/toddler-growth-and-development/toddler-dancing.aspx
- https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/why-song-and-dance-are-essential-childrens-development
