It’s a fact – dancing is good for your baby. According to Live Science, new studies show that babies move in time to music from five months old. Dancing comes naturally to infants and the research, carried out with 120 infants between five months and two years old, demonstrates that babies respond to rhythm and tempo even before they can speak. And what is even more amazing is that the more the children synchronized their movements with the music, the more they smiled!
Dancing with even young babies begins to encourage their sense of expression. And taking part in toddler dance sessions can help to spark their creativity. You may have already noticed that it doesn’t take much at all to encourage your toddler to get moving and grooving as they bounce to the beat, feel the rhythm, and make shapes in response to the music.
Ludus Dance offers two classes on a Monday morning for parents/guardians and their little ones. These are led by Anna Daly, experienced community dance artist and trainer who specialises in working with early years and families. Anna has been involved in community dance for over 15 years and is fascinated by ‘understanding the crucial importance of movement to developing and strengthening our brains; our own neurological potential’.
‘Early years children are fluent in the language of movement,’ says Anna. ‘They learn about and interact with the world through their bodies and movement, activating their senses and brains. They understand non-verbal communications of emotions and body language from just a few months old; they have a strong instinct for the value of body or kinaesthetic intelligence, which provides a felt sense of knowing or understanding something or someone’.
Why not find out more in Anne O Conner and Anna Daly’s Understanding Physical Development in the Early Years/Linking Bodies and Minds (Routledge press) and join us at our Space Babies (0-17 months) or Mini Movers (18 months to 3 years) on Monday mornings.
