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The Development of Dance in Early Childhood
Laura K Cirelli1, Haley E Kragness2
1Department of Psychology, University of Toronto Scarborough.
Current Directions in Psychological Science
|October 3, 2025
Summary
Most infants dance before age one, showing early musicality. Studying infant dance reveals insights into child development, auditory perception, and nature-nurture interactions.
Area of Science:
- Developmental psychology
- Cognitive neuroscience
- Human behavior
Background:
- Dancing is a universal human behavior observed across cultures.
- Infants exhibit dance-like movements before their first birthday, indicating precocious development.
- Early dance emergence is characterized by significant individual differences and a prolonged maturational course.
Purpose of the Study:
- To survey recent research on dance in infancy and childhood.
- To propose early musical movements as a tool for understanding dance development.
- To explore dance as a behavioral measure for adjacent developmental domains like auditory perception and musical memory.
Main Methods:
- Literature review of recent research on early childhood dance.
- Analysis of developmental trajectories and individual differences in infant movement.
- Discussion of potential developmental mechanisms and future research questions.
Main Results:
- Early musical movements in infants are crucial for understanding dance development.
- Infant dance serves as a valuable behavioral indicator for auditory and musical development.
- Nature-nurture interactions significantly influence the emergence and expression of early social behaviors.
Conclusions:
- Investigating infant dance offers insights into fundamental psychological processes.
- Dance development is intertwined with auditory perception, musical memory, and environmental factors.
- Studying early dance highlights the interplay between innate abilities and environmental influences on human behavior.
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