Did you know that early intervention with dance movement therapy could benefit children with Autism in terms of emotional, social, cognitive and motor development? This mode of intervention can help them lead a better life.
Dance Therapy
Dance Movement Therapy has recently made its mark as a viable treatment option for people with Autism. Dance Movement Therapy uses movement to enhance emotions, behaviors, and motor skills. People with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) are oftenless or not aware of their mind and body. Dance Movement Therapy uses bodily sensations to stimulate and re-establish the mind-body connection, which in turn helps them to return to harmony. Many pieces of research and studies have supported the positive effects of dance movement therapy on people with autism.
Benefits of Dance Therapy for People with Autism
Dance therapy can help people with autism in various ways. The benefits are listed below.
- Improved attention and concentration.
- It gives them the liberty to be expressive of their emotions, using movements.
- It helps them enhance their social interactions and leads to the formation of relationships when placed in dyads or groups.
- A therapist can help people to develop vocabulary skills, using the imitation of the repetitive movements the person engages in.
- They learn different patterns of movements required for daily activities.
- Group sessions are best to develop communications and social skills.
- Choreographed sequences can help in enhancing one’s memory and recapitulation skills.
- Touch during therapy helps in reducing sensitivity to physical touch and helps build trust.
- Improved body image.
- It helps in developing body awareness and promotes general well-being.
- Different planes of motion during therapy helps to stimulate verbal communication skills.
- It also helps to strengthen fine motor skills.
- It provides a platform to people with ASD to build upon their social skills, which helps them further to understand the emotions and feeling of other people.
- They learn to develop empathy.
- It helps them to learn adaptation to different situations.
With this wide range of benefits and varied focus that dance therapy provides, it is something that can help everyone. However, the sooner it is started, the better are the improvements.