Should My Little One Dance?

It is not uncommon to hear comments like "Why do schools encourage dancing at a tender age? or " How is dancing related to education? or "let the school focus on teaching,dancing does not help in academics,its just fun and waste of money" and the list goes on.

For a long time,the only appreciated benefit of dancing is physical development but recently further research and studies suggests that dancing does more to a child than physical development (which going by our EYFS curriculum is key).

According to an article by Lin Marsh of the British Council, dance helps children develop spatial awareness, become less clumsy and pay more attention to others sharing their space.

Livestrong.com a health website in an article on 'The benefits of dance for kids' appreciated the role of dance in helping kids progress physically and socially with improved self esteem.The point made of the Educational benefit of dancing,cannot be ignored.Family talk magazine as quoted by Livestrong.com has it that Becoming a skilled dancer requires practice, discipline and focus, skills that can be useful in other areas of your child's life. According to "FamilyTalk Magazine," dance lessons can help to spark creativity in young children and help them to develop an appreciation for the arts. Students who regularly participate in dance lessons typically tend to perform better academically than their nonparticipating peers. "FamilyTalk Magazine" estimates that students who have a background in dance tend to achieve significantly higher SAT scores and do better in math and science competitions.

National Dance Education Organization maintains that Dance is basic to learning. Children learn most readily from experience. John Dewey understood this when he asserted, “Action is the test of comprehension” (Dewey, 1915). To learn by “doing” and to act on knowledge is the basis of kinesthetic learning. Kinesthetic learning is becoming more widely understood through the work of Jean Piaget (1896-1980), Howard Gardner (1944- ), and other cognitive theorists.

Dance, in particular, integrates kinesthetic learning with understanding. Preschool children do not conceptualize abstract processes (Piaget). They primarily learn through physical and sensory experiences. When children are provided with creative movement problems that involve the selection of movement choices, they learn to think in the concrete reality of movement. Thus, learning the art of dance helps young children develop knowledge, skill, and understanding about the world.

So to answer the question "Should my Little one dance? The answer from Little Ivy International School is a big YES! Its a new year and a new term,good time to pick up a form for the Dance Club!.