Poster #162 - The Origins of Dance: Characterizing the Development of Infants’ Earliest Dance Behavior

• In Event: 1-005 - Poster Session 01
  In Poster Session: PS 01 Section - Perceptual, Sensory, Motor

Integrative Statement

Introduction: Music and dance are important parts of young children’s lives (Fernald, 1995; Mehr, Song & Spelke, 2016; Trainor, 1996). Although studies have looked at how infants perceive dance actions (Hannon, Schachner & Nave-Blodgett, 2018), to our knowledge studies have not characterized the development of infants’ own dance behavior in the first months of life. We explore the developmental trajectory of early dance, asking how early infants begin to dance, and how variable this is across children. We also explored change in frequency with age, asking: Do infants produce dance only rarely at first, and more frequently with increasing age? Or alternatively, does this behavior suddenly become a common part of infants’ behavioral repertoire, such that once infants begin to dance, they do so with high and constant frequency?

Methods: To answer these questions, we conducted an online questionnaire, recruiting parents of children age 0 to 3;0 years from the United States (N=50). We asked parents whether and when their child danced, asking them to consider times where the child was producing the movements (rather than being bounced or rocked). In particular we asked: “Does your child dance?” (yes/no); “How old was your child the first time they did something that looked like dancing?” (slider bar from 0-36 months); “How often does your child dance?” (1-7 scale); and “Who starts the dancing?” (infant/other person/both happens). Each was analyzed in conjunction with questions about the child’s current age.

Results: Children who did not dance ranged from 1 to 12 months of age (9 children; M=5.91; SD =3.68). Children as young as 3 months were reported to dance (41 children; range=3-34 months; M=17.81, SD=7.22; Figure 1a). For children who were reported to dance, the average age of their first dance behavior ranged from 2 to 24 months, with an average of 9.91 (SD=3.99; Figure 1b). Infants that had danced at least once were reported to dance frequently, at all ages: Parents indicated that infants danced "almost every day" (5.93 on a 7-point-scale, SD = 1.25), and frequency did not relate to age (r(39)= -0.03, p=0.85; Figure 2). The vast majority of parents reported that infants initiated dance episodes (rather than an adult initiating) some or all of the time (90.2%).

Conclusion: We find evidence that dance begins early: Parents report that children begin to dance by 10 months on average, and as early as 2-3 months. Once infants begin to dance, the behavior does not ramp up gradually – rather, infants suddenly begin to produce this behavior almost every day. This raises the possibility that the motivation to dance may be extremely early developing: Infants may dance as soon as they can sufficiently control their movements, with the age of onset of dance behavior limited only by motor development. This study provides an initial characterization of the developmental origins of dance, to inform future experimental and in-lab studies of infants’ earliest dance behavior.

Authors

• Minju Kim, University of California at San Diego
  Presenting Author

• Adena Schachner, University of California San Diego
  Non-Presenting Author