That’s right – dance is an excellent way to help your children develop their brain power!
First of all, it is important to know that being “Book Smart” or “School Smart” is not the only way to gauge intelligence. Scientists have documented that there are actually nine different types of intelligence:
- Naturalistic Intelligence
- Musical Intelligence
- Logical-Mathematical Intelligence
- Existential Intelligence
- Interpersonal Intelligence
- Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence
- Linguistic Intelligence
- Intra-Personal Intelligence
- Spatial Intelligence
Haven’t you noticed that someone who is super smart (I mean super-duper smart!) may be socially awkward or oblivious to the feelings of other people (Interpersonal Intelligence)? Sometimes people who have a very high level in one kind of intelligence may be lacking in most of the other intelligence types. These people are viewed as being “one dimensional”. That is not what we want for your child!
Well, good new! Dance classes help your child engage in numerous types of intelligence when they are dancing:
Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence
- Graceful
- Sense of timing
- Mind-body co-ordination
Musical Intelligence
- recognize tone
- understand rhythm
- pitch perfect
- music connects to mathematic ability
Spatial Intelligence
- mental imagery
- dynamic imagination
- high creativity
Dance also involves the use of other types of intelligence to varying degrees, which is great – kind of like cross-training!
So, how does dancing actually make a person smarter? Well, dance increases mental capacity by exercising our cognitive process. What we mean by cognitive process or cognition is all of the components that relate to knowledge: attention, memory and working memory, judgment and evaluation, reasoning and “computation”, problem solving and decision making, comprehension and production of language, and so on. In the article, Dancing Helps The Brain Function Better, we learn that:
Dancing is said to improve a person’s cognitive skills since it prepares the brain for prime learning. A vigorous activity such as dancing pumps blood to the brain, giving it the glucose and oxygen it needs to function well. Apart from increasing blood flow to the brain, there is another mechanism that further improves the mental acuity of a dancer or an individual who is learning how to dance. According to psychiatrist Dr. Joseph Coyle of the Harvard Medical School, the hippocampus and the cerebral cortex – both of which play a role in dancing – are rewired and consequently improved with frequent use. The dynamism required in decision-making – for example, what step you need to do next – paves the way for new neural paths that make information transmission faster and better. Such activities also help improve mental capacity since the cognitive processes are exercised in more ways than one.
So dance helps your child’s brain by getting the blood pumping to the brain which provides the ideal environment for learning. Plus, the actual process of learning how to dance helps to create new neural paths in the brain which helps with dynamic and rapid-fire decision making. That benefits your child not only in their dancing but also in their school work and any other activities they do!
Why is dance such a great way to help children get smarter? As Dr. Howard Gardner, the author of Frames of Mind says:
We learn to dance by using all three learning styles (auditory, visual and kinesthetic) so no one is at a disadvantage when it comes to learning how to dance. Dance uses a broad range of intelligence types and as studies have shown, “it is important to encourage children to explore and exercise all of their intelligences. Creating a rich, nurturing, and stimulating environment filled with interesting materials, toys, games, and books lays the foundation for healthier, happier, brighter children! Students who have these kinds of experiences know many ways to learn almost anything!”
Isn’t that what we all want for our children….to give them the best preparation for a life of learning?
#EpicDanceComplex #Saskatoon #yxe #dtnyxe #Dance
Check back on Thursday for another reason dance is beneficial for your child!
Wasn’t the information on dance and intelligence interesting? Who knew there we so many types of intelligence and that dance was so influential to growth and development. Now let’s explore the confidence your child will gain from dance.
