Benefits of academic dance in psychomotor development in Early Childhood Education

Abstract

Objective: to highlight the difference in psychomotor development in the Early Childhood Education stage, between students who practice academic dance and those who do not. Method: sample composed of 158 subjects (70.9% girls and 29.1% boys) of Early Childhood Education between 3 and 5 years (M (months) = 50 and DT = 10.29), of which 69 practiced academic dance regularly. The psychomotor evaluation scale for children aged 3 to 5 years (PSM I) was completed, where the level of performance in the different established items was verified. The statistical package Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) version 25 was used, to analyze three areas of psychomotor skills: gross motor skills, fine motor skills and body scheme, using as a dependent variable the global score of each dimension formed by the grouping of seven categories: locomotion, leg coordination, balance, arm coordination, manual eye coordination, laterality and segmental distinction, through a Pearson bivariate correlation analysis. In addition, the Student's t test was used for independent groups, with the aim of comparing the means of the results of the group that practices and that does not practice academic dance. Results: the practice of academic dance significantly improves the psychomotor development in students of initial educational stages. Conclusion: educational dance should be included as part of the training and integral development of the student body.