Dance and Human Development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Dance and Human Development - Essay Example Literature is filled with studies of human development which revolved around various disciplines. Human development refers to how an individual develops from infancy to childhood, to adolescence and adulthood; development has a broad connotation. Infants use movement to express themselves and even have their own sense of their surroundings. Charles Darwin studied the theory of evolution by studying how his own child played and reacted to the world, how creativity connected with development. Creativity is first expressed in infancy and as the baby grows. Piaget (cited in Gardner, 1990, p. 2) indicated that infants express themselves through the sensorimotor system, which involves the use of sense organs and motor system; toddlers begin to understand the various symbol systems and the workings of the physical world; young children begin to reason out and argue on logic or morality; and adolescents begin to reason in a ‘formal-operational’ attitude (Gardner, 1990, p. 2). A play is an important creative expression of a child. The world of make-believe shapes the child’s emotional, psychological and mental abilities in dealing with the world around him/her. A play has some neurological implication on a child – it enhances brain growth (Kennedy, 2008, p. 16). This proposal aims to provide an analysis of the relevance of the arts to human development and play. The study will discuss aspects of dance, its history and healing power and its role in the development of human personality, and how it affects the psychological, mental, physical and social well being. The methodology will consist of a review of the literature. Sources will come from books, online or physical library, journals and other valuable sources of information on human development and dance.