Using creative dance for expressing emotions in preschool children

ABSTRACT

The major importance of preschool children’s mental health with regard to their emotional and social development has a documented ground in the literature. In these domains, it is crucial for young children to learn how to express their emerging emotions appropriately and efficiently. Creative dance and movement is already being used as a therapeutic technique in a wide range of interventional processes. But it can also be used as a preventive tool for both reducing socio-emotional risks and maximizing developmental and mental health for typically-developing children in early ages; using creative dance as such is a less discussed subject in the literature. Also, creative dance is thought to be an appropriate method for this purpose because of its compatible features with preschool children’s developmental stages. From this point of view, this study discusses the importance of using creative dance in expressing emotions in early childhood and thus aims to emphasize the importance of integrating two domains in early childhood development, namely, socio-emotional development and expressive and creative movement. A literature review method has been used. The literature review has demonstrated that early childhood is parallel with the expression-based structure of creative dance.

KEYWORDS:

• Creative dance
• preschool children
• socio-emotional development
• expression of emotions

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Zeynep Çetin

In 1991, Zeynep Çetin completed her undergraduate education at Hacettepe University Child Health and Education Department. She graduated from Hacettepe University Health Sciences Institute Child Development and Education program in 1995 and completed her doctorate education in 2002. For 4 months in 2009, She made theoretical and practical applications at the School of Humanities Department of Sciences In Preschool Educatıon and Educatıonal Design at Agean University in Greece. She has national books and book chapters and international publications. Her research interests include arts and creativity in children, development in infancy, neglect and abuse in children.

Pelin Erdem Çevikbaş

Pelin Erdem Çevikbaş received her bachelor’s degree from the Department of Psychology in Hacettepe University, Türkiye in 2005. Shortly after graduation, she started working as an official preschool ballet teacher-for which she has prepared (as an assistant teacher) for 5 years before. She worked with several preschool children in different schools for 7 more years. She received her masters degree in 2010 and her PhD in 2018 from the Child Development and Education program of Institute of Health Sciences, Hacettepe University. She is currently working as a research assistant in the Department of Child Development of Hacettepe University. Her topics of interest includes aesthetic perception in children, creative dance, ballet education, justice perception in adolescence, behavioral problems and preventive mental health.