MMLM EP 8: Dance: Why it Works for Neurodivergent Children

That's fantastic.

And so it leads to a natural question.

Why is dance so beneficial for children?

You only have 30

seconds to answer that.

Yeah,

yeah, my gosh.

I would say to get the best understanding, you should read the book.

My chapter speaks to and echoes the building of all of the author's contributions, particularly with a focus to building of neural networks, inter-hemispheric connectivity.

And if you want to go deeper, there's so much, I mean, it's so impressive what you've put together.

I'm so proud and honoured that I am an author representing evidence-based dance movement programmes in this book.

And in the context of which it's presented, it really, I mean, everything is there to be, you know, to go deeper into all the supporting research, you know.

All of the impactful elements of movement are so clearly presented and separated out in this book.

And for me, I think what so exciting about it is hopefully people will understand how that comes together in dance so the movement and by that I mean not just the general benefits of physical exercise which I think most people generally understand you know moving is good for your health but the thing that I think people really struggle with and I was delighted I've been dipping into the book and reading you know other people's chapters delighted that Mike picked up on the fact that you know I really want to communicate that dance is more about the brain than it is of the body we think of the dance and movement being about the body but it really is about the brain and so all of those things all the patterns and sequences the reflex inhibitors that are covered so well in the book by other authors the rhythm the rhythmical aspects the musical elements the social piece because of course we dance with other people so the multi-modal accessibility and then Particularly my kind of research focus, what I'm really excited about as a researcher, working through all of this in our grants roots level, when we're looking at projects that we have out there across the UK, the non-verbal means of communication and expression and how that supports speech and language development.

So, I mean, dance straddles are...

I like to say it straddles like physical exercise and artistic expression, making it intrinsically fun, motivating and quite easily, readily differentiated for different students.

So, I mean, our programmes don't just have some of these elements.

I think what distinguishes what we do as a charity, what Movement Works does as a charity, using dance to support development and learning, Those things are applicable to other dance programmes, but I think the uniqueness of our approach is the fact that it's put together in a very intentional, scaffolded and crafted way specifically to work through those benefits and have some tangible, measurable outcomes to the work.

You know, Mike and I can really relate to the patterned, sequenced, developmentally appropriate pieces of this.

And it's interesting because as I started to study more of the subcortical and subterranean, those are the brainstem elements of development, I became acutely aware that dance and music need to be in all autism treatment programs.

And as you know, people start at behavior and learning and all of the pillars need to be addressed first.

So that makes me think.

Absolutely.

What could like a parent is watching this today and they're like, OK, I buy in.

This is great.