Dance and Play: Enjoying Music and Movement

Music can provoke a wide range of emotional and physical responses, even in very young babies. Your little one will start to show reactions to music even as a newborn – in fact, many studies have shown that babies react to sounds and music even in the womb!

While some may think of dance as structured and formal, for babies and young children, it can be as simple as swaying, bouncing, or twirling to the rhythm of a lullaby or a catchy tune. Clapping and banging objects and singing nursery rhymes with actions are some of the ways you will naturally begin to introduce your baby to dancing and rhythm. As they grow, encouraging your child to embrace dance and movement as part of their physical development builds their confidence and has a wide range of other benefits. In this blog, we’ll look at the positive impacts of music and movement and some of the ways that you can get your whole family dancing, improving their health, coordination and encouraging a lifelong love of music.

Dancing And Physical Development

Dancing at home is a great way to support your little one’s physical development. Moving to music improves posture, balance, flexibility, agility, strength, stamina and hand-eye coordination which all contribute to your child’s overall physical and emotional growth. Here are just some of the ways that encouraging more dancing at home will benefit them:

Strengthens muscles: Dancing involves the use of various muscle groups in the body, helping to build strength and endurance.

Improves balance and coordination: The varied movements involved in dancing enhance children’s balance and coordination, critical skills for their overall physical development.

Promotes flexibility: The twists, turns, and stretches involved in dance routines promote flexibility and contribute to a healthy range of motion.

Boosts cognitive development: By learning dance routines, children are also boosting their memory and concentration skills.

Getting Your Little Ones Dancing

Children will often naturally react to music in a physical way – swaying their hips, jumping, clapping or swinging their arms. Encourage them to explore these movements by playing a wide variety of music, dancing and bouncing to music whilst you are carrying them and if you play an instrument, you can share your own music with them too. Or why not try these ideas for making your own musical instruments to dance along too! Read 5 Ways Music Helps Your Child Develop.

Don’t forget dancing is great for all ages, so encourage the whole family to get involved – how about throwing a family dance off – all copy the moves of the youngest member and add your own moves after. Listen to music at home or in the car, and make note of which genres and songs get the best reaction!  Movement based songs and nursery rhymes are a fun way to match actions and music, Incy Wincy Spider and round and round the garden are fun poems for babies who aren’t mobile yet. As they get older, Ring-a-Ring-a-Roses, Head, Shoulders Knees and Toes and Row Row Row your boat, both have simple dancing actions that young children can learn easily.

More Ideas For Getting Them Moving

You don’t need any fancy equipment or expensive toys to encourage your children to dance. Children naturally want to use their bodies, express energy and emotion and try new things, so all you need to do is to provide a safe space and some upbeat music to do it! If you need more ideas for games and play that involve dancing and physical movement, we found this great list of music and dance games to play with children, or take advantage of the current trend of viral dances and look online for fresh inspiration to get your family moving.

If you want to invest in some toys that encourage movement, whether through music, sporting activities or physical play such as rolling around trucks and cars, look for the Physical Development logo on Early Learning Centre toys, or visit our dedicated Physical Development page.

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