Thread: How do children learn?

I have a daughter, five and a half years old now. She is dancing and watching dance clips since she's three. She couldn't talk properly but did observe the dancers on the clips very well and tried to imitate their moves. When I stick on music she usually plays the bellydancer, comes in from behind the curtain, uses a towel or maybe a thin scarf as a veil and goes for real music interpretation. She has grace, originality and really listens well, so I never started telling her: do this, do that, also because I loved the things she came up with (she was about doing her own stuff, anyway, I was allowed to watch, maximum!).

Lately, her self-awareness has increased. She looks a lot into the mirror, cares about how she is dressed and wonders if she looks nice so her friends will want to play with her. She also comes with me to our troupe rehearsals where there's more a working than a fun atmosphere. Yesterday she was dancing at home, but it seemed like she reflects more on what she does now. I'm wondering if that naive go-for-it, that enthusiasm where she was so herself is going to go away?

I have seen children's dance shows (that is, showcases of children's groups, not professional show dancing), and it was so refreshing to see how eagerly the little ones were at it, dancing away fullheartedly, but the older the children were, the clumsier or more uncomfortable they seemed to be with their bodies.

She's growing, that's a fact...anyone knows how these developments go?

I think your observations are very astute- there is a lot going on in that little body!

Growing children constantly have to adjust to changing bodies, which will make even the most adept seem awkward at times. & yes, as her self awareness changes, her approach to all her activities will change-dance may be only the most visible manifestation of this. Give her space & encouragement & be patient. She sounds like a perfectly normal 5 year old. Enthusiasms come & go & come again, so don't despair of her loosing joy in dance just yet!

I would only be concerned if she seems to become seriously withdrawn, or if it seems like she is reacting to outside pressure & talk to her about it.

Having spent my entire adult life working with children as my day job I can tell you this:
As children develop they become aware of the social feed back they receive (from all sources, peers, adults, family, teachers) as they become aware they also become a bit fearful of the negative feed back and are a bit more shy about how they move (in dance). They are holding back their full ability at times for fear of negative feed back or in some cases positive! (positive can make them feel as if they are to good and it may make them feel as if they are showing off).
Just my two cents.....

I think it's a wonderful thing that your daughter is dancing. I agree with the above points. As children age, they become more self conscious and become shyer and not as exuberant. Don't let this deter you from possibly offering her advice on how to make her dancing better. Make it like a game - Do what Mommy does!

I'd been doing ballet since age five and belly dance since age seven and i can honestly say that belly dancing kept me from being completely self conscious. Even if I wasn't the best in the ballet class, I could go to belly dance class and feel like i was good and it gave me a shot of self confidence. This was more in the pre-teen to teenage years.

So, although I don't really know the answer to your original question of how children learn, I just wanted to say that i think it's great that your daughter is dancing. Try to do everything you can to keep her enjoying this dance because after all is said and done....it's still cute and adorable to watch.

Oh thank you all for your comments.
My daughter is going to "creative children's dancing",
so even if there is no thorough ballet technique being taught there, she has something apart from my stuff.

I have a mother who is a teacher and used to try to help me by criticising whatever I did, not realizing that to me it all sounded like: I don't like what you do. So I strongly respect my kid wanting to show me what she can do instead of playing the authority, and my best job has been so far being an enthusiastic audience. Luckily for her, she soon took to watching numerous dancers I love on youtube, so she actually had better influence than I alone could give her. The only thing that stimulated her is the fact that she knows I care about dancing. But she is fussy about it being her own thing, not me telling her what to do (but yes, she does watch me).

Tight schedules again have brought me to drag her to our troupe rehearsals and even if she's playing with barbie doll in the corner, she's watching.
Maybe it is time to teach her? She joins sometimes, but tries to integrate her own (she loves hair tosses for her hair actually started to grow, she was one of the babies who always had a few curls but was almost bald for the entire first two years).

I always think: she is young, so elastic - what should I do to get her develop something, without taking away the individual thing, the creativity I so adore...maybe it's best like that, having her hang around where there's dancing and wait for her initiative?

That's her when she was around three, four, in a bellydance class where I used to go.

Originally Posted by Nouria

Maybe it is time to teach her? She joins sometimes, but tries to integrate her own (she loves hair tosses for her hair actually started to grow, she was one of the babies who always had a few curls but was almost bald for the entire first two years).

I always think: she is young, so elastic - what should I do to get her develop something, without taking away the individual thing, the creativity I so adore...maybe it's best like that, having her hang around where there's dancing and wait for her initiative?

I know everyone is different & this is purely based on my own experience- I have found that you can teach children under 8, but it has to be on their own level. 8 seems to be the magic number for kids I have taught as far as being able to handle a class in adult format. Even then, you have to make sure you have a certain... is angle the right word? approach? but before that, the structure has to be much more playful & classes need to be shorter. Personally, I let my son do his own thing until HE felt he was ready to actively participate in class- which happened to be age 8, which I was expecting from previous experience. He did a 'tap/ballet' class before that, which was geared towards younger kids & he really enjoyed that too, but it was more a creative movement than a technical dance class.

Any formal ballet classes should wait until after age 6, 7 or 8 is good! Movement classes are different!
I would say that doinf ballet ANS belly dance (even if that is picking it up naturally by watching!) would best if you want her to be able to choose dance later on (and I mean choose, not "produce a dancer" sort of stage mother thing! I have 3 daughters and two did choose dance and one did not I love and respect each one for their interests and choice!)

I think the best time to learn is as a child because you are so nimble and flexible. It's amazing how FAST they learn it because they are so young. I started bellydancing at a not too tender age (to put it delicately) and I know that my age alone works against me. But anything I learned as a child has been with me all my life because it is a part of my own physical development.