A critical analysis of how a neurocognitive approach to dance movement therapy can be used to manage the mental health of children in a primary setting.
von Ellie Smith
1. Dance movement therapy
1.1. Dance movement therapy or DMT is defined by the American Dance Therapy Association (ADTA) as ‘the psychotherapeutic use of movement to promote emotional, social, cognitive, and physical integration of the individual, for the purpose of improving health and well-being’
1.2. 1940- DMT was pioneered by Marian Chace (Cruz, 2016)
1.3. Studies that assess the effectiveness of DMT have been conducted with individuals with diverse physical illnesses and medical and neurological conditions. These studies typically assess measures of well-being and mood change, depression scores or other psychological outcomes pre- and post-intervention.
1.4. DMT has been shown to improve a range of mental health and well-being measures including mood, vitality ,self-efficacy/coping, body image and anxiety (Goodill, 2006 in Koch, Morlinghaus, & Fuchs, 2007).
1.5. DMT can be an effective tool in the treatment of depression. Karkou et al. (2019)
1.5.1. Jeong et al. (2005) conducted an RCT examining theeffects of DMT on depression symptoms in teenagers with milddepression. All subscale scores significantly decreased following the12-week intervention
2. Dilemmas surrounding the teaching of Dance.
2.1. The pedagogical dilemma which arises when distinguishing between individual and collaborative creativity, is how to successfully incorporate both individual and collaborative creative activity. An example taken from the peer reviewed journal 'Creativity in primary level dance education: Moving beyond assumption', Michael was confronted by the issue of the children in his group having much less experience of collaborative working and the accompanying ‘social skills’, which therefore entailed the risk of ineffective collaborative creative activities which might disempower certain children.
2.2. Dance in the national curriculum has no mention of improvisation and is often structured such that the children are instructed to create 4 counts of this and 4 counts of that. however Bannon and Sanderson (2000), argue that there is a ‘need for a new consensus on the part of the dance education community to accommodate the distinctive features of dance improvisation as a contributory element of dance education… as exploration and/or performance’
3. Neurocognative approach
3.1. This approach is based on approaching brain changes through behavioral and functional change
3.2. The NCA is a therapeutic approach based on an understanding of the brain mechanisms. These mechanisms (emotions, beliefs, behaviors) have an impact on our decisions and actions. Learning to manage them (Adaptive Intelligence) allows us to interact effectively, with less stress, more adaptability, and a better quality of life.
4. Dance
4.1. Dance has an important place in multicultural education and the development of culturally responsive pedagogy. (Culturally responsive dance pedagogy in the primary classroom)
