Am J Dance Ther (2010) 32:100–112

DOI 10.1007/s10465-010-9090-2

From Simple Line to Expressive Movement: The Use

of Creative Movement to Enhance Socio-Emotional
Development in the Preschool Curriculum

Lily Thom

Published online: 30 March 2010

 American Dance Therapy Association 2010

Abstract This paper explores the use of body and movement studies in the
preschool curriculum to address socio-emotional development. Findings in affect
psychology, neuroscience, and dance/movement therapy provide evidence for the
importance of an integrated emotional processing system. Given space and time to
experiment with expressive movement in the preschool classroom, young children
explore their somatic and emotional experiences. Their ability to recognize, regu-
late, and express emotion echoes their developing use of movement as an alternative
mode of representation. Through movement study, children become better able to
connect their visceral emotional processing to conscious appraisal. It is this inte-
grated system of body and emotion that contributes to a strong sense of the self as an
emotional, social, and cognitive being.

Keywords Child development
Early childhood education

Emotions in children
Dance therapy
Neuropsychology

Introduction

The children were bumping into each other. Anne1 fell down and James tripped
right on top of her. Maggie drifted off to a corner of the hall and pressed her cheek
against the wall. Dan reached over to hold Alex’s hand, but Alex was too busy
pushing away Anne, who had taken hold of Theo’s pants to right herself. The
children were supposed to be forming a line in the hallway, but nothing about the
scene resembled a line. It was the first month of school, and trying to organize

1
All names have been changed.

L. Thom (&)
89 Wyckoff Street Apt # 2B, Brooklyn, NY 11201, USA
e-mail: lthom@gm.slc.edu

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fifteen 3-year-olds into one line was like stringing together beads with magnetic
properties; they attracted and repelled for, seemingly, illogical reasons.
Yet, even in these early months of preschool, the children often used gesture,
facial expression, and space to convey acutely underlying emotions. The emotional
and social events that some children exhibited with ease, others struggled to express.
As a teacher, I worked to foster the connection between children’s bodily
experiences and their emotional expression. Slowly, they began to interact with each
other and incorporate shared emotion concepts and movement vocabulary into
social and emotional situations. Given space and time to experiment with yoga and
expressive movement, the children explored their somatic and emotional experi-
ences. Their ability to recognize, regulate, and express emotion echoed their
developing use of movement. Within 7 months, the children could not only use their
bodies to form a line, but their ability to observe and reproduce complex movement
also became highly sophisticated.
Fundamental concepts in dance/movement therapy are supported by research
findings in the neural processing of emotions (LeDoux, 1996; Damasio, 1994;
Winters, 2008). Dance/movement therapy can contribute to a preschool curriculum
that employs body and movement studies. My work with typically developing
3-year-old children demonstrates an approach to preschool curriculum that attends
to the physical aspects of children’s socio-emotional development through the use
of creative movement. I outline some practices for creative movement that extend
from creative movement teaching practices described in texts by Joyce (1994) and
Gilbert and National Dance Association (1992). In addition to outlining some
specific movement practices, I focus on an approach to daily classroom events that
recognizes the central role of the body in development and that can be incorporated
throughout all areas of curriculum.
In the preschool environment, developing language skills, social cognition, and
self-regulation are common challenges facing young children. The study of
movement and emotional expression for preschool children brings together a range
of perspectives. Affect psychologists clarify the connection between conscious
recognition of emotion and the visceral, autonomic aspects of emotional processing
(LeDoux, 1996). Neuroscience and affect psychology provide findings that show
how the physical being’s experiences in the world are inextricable from human
cognition and emotion (Stern, 1985; Dolan, 2002; Clore & Huntsinger, 2007).
Dance/movement therapy shows how creative movement and body awareness can
contribute to children’s emotional development and developing social cognition
(Frith & Frith, 2007). Dance/movement therapy is a psychotherapeutic approach
that mediates stress and trauma through movement and body awareness. The term
dance/movement therapy encompasses a range of theories and techniques, all of
which are rooted in the assumption that the body is directly connected to mental
health (Levy, 2005).
These perspectives offer a broad range of approaches, assumptions, goals, and
definitions. Yet, each perspective examines the ways in which humans may become
best equipped to deal with emotional experiences as they interact with social,
physical, and cognitive challenges. The answer, for all perspectives, lies in
examination of the relationship between bodily feelings and conscious appraisal of

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emotion. Perhaps LeDoux (1996, p. 303) describes the common goal best when he
advocates ‘‘a more harmonious integration’’ of the conscious and visceral aspects of
emotional processing.

Theoretical Perspectives

The significance of children’s experiences through their bodies has always been a
tenet of progressive education, grounded in developmental psychology. According
to Piaget (1969), the preschool age child learns through physical action upon the
environment. Children then incorporate the effects of these physical actions into
their scheme of the world. This self-initiated experimentation is the crux of
cognitive development and must take place through concrete action before the child
can master abstract thinking. However, while Piaget focused solely on the role of
physical experience for cognition, the developmental-interaction approach to
education extends beyond a cognitive framework (Franklin & Biber, 1974). This
approach recognizes children’s active engagement in the context of interaction
between cognitive, emotional, social, and physical development.
While Piaget (1969) posits that children’s cognition depends upon bodily
experience, affect psychologists examine how human emotion depends upon the
body. James (1884) argued that without a body, emotion is impossible. We cannot
imagine how we would even define emotion without the visceral reactions
associated with conscious emotional states (James, 1884). LeDoux (1996) describes
how these two aspects of emotional processing occur in the brain during experiences
of fear. In this system the ‘‘low road’’ through the brain allows one to immediately
react to a stimulus through the autonomic nervous system. The system includes
responses such as change in heart rate, respiration, and sweat production.
Simultaneously, a slower ‘‘high road’’ through the cortical system allows the brain
to assess consciously the emotional state and to respond. The low and high roads
constantly interact to determine bodily responses and make conscious decisions
about how to act. LeDoux (1996) explains that this two-process system tends to give
the low road more control over the high road, thus allowing visceral feelings to
overshadow conscious emotion.
Examining children’s body awareness and emotional expression aims to
encourage better communication between bodily feelings and conscious appraisal.
LeDoux (1996) similarly proposes that humans may eventually evolve better
interaction between the two systems. A preschool curriculum that addresses the
development of an integrated emotional processing system encourages children to
express, organize, and regulate low road reactions. A 3-year-old child’s frontal lobe
is less developed, thus limiting children’s ability to inhibit prepotent impulses
(Johnson, 2003). In this developmental stage, children’s system of conscious
appraisal is limited, as is their awareness of low road responses. A child may
become red in the face, have difficulty breathing, clench his fists and strike another
child. This occurs before the high road can fully assess bodily reactions and
experience conscious awareness of anger. An early verbal child may lack the
language to connect ‘‘anger’’—an abstract concept—to the bodily changes that

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indicate anger. Fostering this connection will aid children’s development of their
emotional experiences and social cognition.
Affect psychology examines how better integration of the emotional processing
system affects cognition. Cognition and emotion are often viewed as a dichotomy,
fulfilling the Western concept of a divide between mind and body (Dolan, 2002).
However, many psychologists challenge the dichotomy and assert that emotion
plays an integral role in processing information and making rational decisions. Such
findings help explain why the developmental-interaction approach is an effective
way to address children’s development. According to this approach, a child cannot
begin to meet the cognitive challenges of school without also meeting social and
emotional demands (Franklin & Biber, 1974).
When presented with cognitive tasks, emotional states influence how we assess
information, make judgments, and regulate our thinking on a daily basis (Clore &
Huntsinger, 2007). Overall, experiments show that ‘‘positive affective information
promotes and negative information inhibits the cognitive responses that are
accessible or dominant in a particular task’’ (Clore & Huntsinger, 2007, p. 397). In
the case of emotional disorders, people with anxiety or depression are hindered by
prominent negative affect that severely affects their life choices. Without a history
of positive affective information they may fail to make use of information about the
consequences of their decisions to take action (Hayden & Platt, 2006). In extreme
cases of neurological disorders, or brain lesions, altered emotional ability can
drastically affect rational judgment (Damasio, 1994).
Early education experiences form the foundation of children’s affective history
with social, emotional, and cognitive challenges. In the preschool classroom,
children typically experience some negative affect as they adjust to a new
environment, separate from primary caregivers, and struggle to regulate emotional
impulses. Children with prevalent sadness, anxiety or low self-esteem in the school
setting may display inhibition of the skills necessary to perform certain cognitive
tasks, such as global focus (Clore & Huntsinger, 2007). For example, children who
approach puzzles with negative affect may get stuck on one piece, thus exhibiting
local, as opposed to global, thinking. Children who approach cognitive tasks with
confidence and delight are often more able to take in the big picture and use flexible
strategies with ease. These observations are consistent with studies showing that
negative affect prevents individuals from necessary forms of cognition (Clore &
Huntsinger, 2007). Understanding how affect influences cognition should encourage
educational curricula to value children’s emotional and social development.
One way to help children deal with negative affect is to incorporate emotion
concepts into classroom life. In the classroom, children make connections between
bodily expression and abstract concepts of emotion. Recognition of facial expression,
in order to foster social cognition, is a crucial part of recognizing commonalities
between the self and the other (Adolphs, 2006). Materials in the pre-school classroom,
such as puzzles, books, and dolls, contribute to a rich environment for examining
emotional expression in the daily context. Simple emotions—happy, sad, angry, or
disgusted—can be recognized and discussed through classroom materials and daily
events. On occasions when emotional situations spontaneously arise, children are

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challenged to display various emotions or to observe and mimic each other’s

expressions.
As the children’s emotional vocabulary and display develop with this exposure,
children can guess an emotion based on the teacher’s facial expression in a form of
emotion charades. Eventually, the children act out simple emotions using facial
expression and have their peers guess those particular emotions. A curriculum that
incorporates body and movement studies into the classroom allows children
increasing comfort with emotional expression. Eventually, children use full body
expression, or movement accompanied by music, to convey emotion during emotion
charades. Children begin to see how their emotional experiences are unique, shared,
and interpreted by others. This process represents one way for children to reappraise
emotional experiences and view the diversity of temperament or emotional range
among their peers.

Applying Movement Practices in the Classroom

In the preschool setting, dance/movement therapy contributes methods and theories

for an approach to learning which includes movement, body, and emotions. Dance/
movement therapy represents a break from traditional psychotherapeutic approaches
that are based on language and do not directly attend to the body. Instead, dance/
movement therapy attends to non-verbal means of emotional expression. Interest-
ingly, LeDoux (1996) critiques traditional psychoanalysis for similar reasons. Both
LeDoux and proponents of dance/movement therapy concentrate less on cortical
control of emotion and more on better interaction between the two systems—bodily
and conscious—involved in emotional processing.
Because the body is such a crucial part of emotional expression, movement is a
powerful way to represent emotions and to help connect the conscious appraisal
system to the autonomic aspects of emotion (Boone & Cunningham, 1998). This
may occur in ways that would not be possible through verbal therapy. Yet, for many
dance/movement therapists, as well as in a curriculum for 3-year-olds, this does not
mean that language, as a form of conscious appraisal, is absent from the process.
Participants in therapy use movement to create systems of meaning and
representation that relate to the patient’s life experiences:
There are many languages in which meaning can be created and communi-
cated…the languages of action which lead to mime, gesture and drama…the
languages of silence and stillness which are part of meditation. The languages
are analogical and symbolic; they do not point to meaning directly; they
demonstrate it by re-creating pattern in metaphorical shape and form. (Hervey,
2000, p. 275)
Using this expanded concept of language, children’s mastery of movement, gesture,
and yoga are non-verbal ways to represent meaning and appraise emotional
experiences. Children in the preschool classroom can create a shared movement
vocabulary that is incorporated into movement activities and interactive play.
While seeking out emotional content through movement, verbal language is
fundamental to children’s understanding of emotion. Categorization, for 3-year-olds,

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is an evolving cognitive ability accompanied by language development. Emerging

language skills allow children to make cognitive distinctions and organize their social
and emotional experiences. Lewis (2000) argues that not only is cognitive ability to
categorize experience useful, but ‘‘emotional experiences require that the organism
possess some fundamental cognitive abilities including the ability to perceive and
discriminate, recall, associate, and compare’’ (p. 273). Lupyan’s (2006) studies
illustrate how language may enhance this ability to organize. In studies where people
must learn and utilize a novel categorization system, naming facilitated the learning of
unfamiliar categories and allowed for more sophisticated categorization. Similarly,
children may benefit from exposure to concepts like ‘‘I am frustrated’’ or ‘‘I feel shy’’
as ways to represent more fully complex emotional experiences (Lewis, 2000).
In the classroom, as in dance/movement therapy, movement and language
together provide multiple modes for developing concepts that are emotionally and
cognitively challenging for young children. These multiple systems of representa-
tion can function as interacting parts within global reasoning. Studies have shown
that spontaneous gesturing helps children to learn and retain mathematical concepts
(Cook, Mitchell, & Goldin-Meadow, 2008). Such studies suggest that gesture may
offer an alternative and embodied way for people to organize abstract concepts in
addition to language representation. Thus, for children approaching the study of
emotions the body may consequently be an important tool that allows children to
represent and construct new ideas.
Using language in conjunction with movement can provide a way to foster social
development in the classroom and to emphasize the power of verbal communica-
tion. Children’s emerging social cognition requires them to share not only emotions,
but also representations of the world (Frith & Frith, 2007). Terms used in yoga
practice provide a rich vocabulary of body shapes or positions that correspond to
names and ideas. Sanskrit terms for yoga poses illustrate forms and animals
represented by the body. In addition, children can categorize movements in terms of
spatial elements or proprioceptive elements: straight or curved, toward the body or
away from it, low or high.
Throughout the school year, children create and name their own poses using
imagery or categories from their own experiences. For example, poses associated
with swimming and water might emerge after a student visits the ocean. One child
who was fascinated with penguins created a penguin pose during yoga practice. Her
classmates then used this pose whenever they needed to stand still in a line, and
experimented with using penguin poses when moving through space, when walking
down the hallway. Thus, within the daily routine, the students develop a common
system of symbolism, which employs both the body and language skills to represent
images, objects or concepts that are significant to each child.
Yoga practice can also provide a means to incorporate techniques from dance/
movement therapy into the classroom curriculum. In dance/movement therapy, the
therapist helps to expand the patient’s bodily and emotional repertoire using
rhythmic structure, repetition, and consistency (Levy, 2005). Within the classroom,
certain practices can be used to mark transitions, such as a slow arm-stretch
accompanied by a song that signals the start of morning meeting. Over time, the
stretch can be altered in speed, level, or movement quality and can be led by

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students in the class, who may further expand on it. This expansion gives one the
sense of flexibility, relaxation, and resilience in responding to the unfamiliar, but
depends upon the student’s increasing ability to attend to somatic cues from the
body. With recognition of internal feelings and needs, the student can respond to
and regulate emotional experiences. He feels he can depend upon his own body to
meet new challenges, to heal, to take care, and know limits. This develops
recognition of self and promotes positive body image (Levy, 2005).
Enhanced body awareness is central both to dance/movement therapy and to an
educational curriculum addressing social, emotional, and cognitive challenges. The
importance of sensory awareness is addressed in affect psychology through
examination of responses to somatic markers, i.e. signals from the autonomic
nervous system. Failure to use affective information appears to go hand-in-hand
with inability to respond effectively to emotional experience. People who are more
responsive to somatic markers are better able to make sound cognitive decisions and
take safe risks (Bechara, Damasio, Tranel, & Damasio, 2005). Enhanced awareness
of bodily states of arousal has been shown to correlate with better predictive
judgments in responding to stimuli (Dolan, 2002).
As in dance/movement therapy, yoga and meditation techniques encourage the
practitioner to practice sensory awareness, organize his impulses and internalize
control (Levy, 1995). Various ways of breathing used in yoga practice can be either
stimulating or relaxing; children learn to apply them in different emotional
situations to modulate energy. In group situations, in which children are distracted
or in a low-energy state, rapid intake of breath can help to organize children as they
attend to this communal, rhythmic task. Children who are becoming frustrated or
tense may rest their hands on their abdomens as they fill with long, slow, calming
breaths.
During a meditative resting pose, the children can pretend either that they are
asleep or that they are soft stuffed animals. Lying quietly and becoming aware of
quiet, internal sensations can be a very difficult task for children with limited
impulse control. Learning to isolate or wiggle body parts in stillness is one way for
children to approach this task. Children can practice releasing muscular tension
while the teacher gently manipulates and shakes their legs, arms or head.
Eventually, children like to practice this muscular release with each other as they
evolve greater ability to relax and better mutual trust. Children develop the sense
that they can trust their bodies, both on their own and in relation to others. These are
powerful concepts for children who are only just developing the ability to organize
their own impulses and integrate their sensory experiences into the social world.
Incorporating free movement time into the curriculum gives children another
opportunity to develop somatic awareness. During these times, children attend to
their understanding that any kind of movement is acceptable and may be
pleasurable. Free movement allows children to dance to music without necessarily
attaching representation to their movement. Some children feel more comfortable
moving close to the floor. Others enjoy standing still and simply shaking their heads
or savor the time to use their whole bodies through space or expend energy. The
acceptance of all movement frees the children to follow their instincts and attend to

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the somatic cues within their own bodies, rather than seeking an external vision of
their bodies and movement.
Over the course of the school year, children look to each other for cues, and copy
each other’s movement tendencies. The children incorporate yoga poses and
breathing practice into their free movement. Representation also appears gradually
as the movement vocabulary previously used to represent emotional states becomes
incorporated into improvisation. Eventually, children may take free movement out
of the designated time period and decide to incorporate movement vocabulary and
expression into play.

Enhancing Social Development

As children’s movement and emotional expression become more social, it is useful

to examine how children form early relationships. Attachment theory contributes
theory and techniques for dance/movement therapy that are useful in a preschool
setting where children are dealing with separation. Attachment theory posits that
early experiences with caregivers shape the infant’s object relations in ways that
extend into peer relations and throughout the life span (Winnicott, 1989). Early
communication between infant and caregiver is a reciprocal and highly physical
engagement where the caregiver reflects the infant’s experiences (Benjamin, 1988).
The child develops an understanding of cause and effect by recognizing that ‘‘one’s
act originates inside and reflects one’s own intentions’’ (Fox & Campos, 1994,
p. 247). This helps the infant use his own actions to interpret the actions of others,
developing the ability to empathize. In studying caregiver-child relations, attach-
ment theorists noted how caregivers support and enable attachment through bodily
communication. An attentive and engaged caregiver molds or attunes his body and
facial expressions to the child’s (Benjamin, 1988).
One component of the attachment process is demonstrated in the mirror neuron
system through ‘‘the automatic tendency to imitate the actions and share the feelings
of others at the neural level’’ (Frith & Frith, 2006, p. 40). Studies of mirror neurons
may shed light on the fundamental importance of attunement for social and
emotional development. Examination of the mirror neuron system shows that
observing and executing an action causes the same neurons to discharge (Freedberg
& Gallese, 2007). Mirror neurons, thus, allow for a kind of embodied representation
of the actions that we observe (Freedberg & Gallese, 2007). In this system, it is
through the body in the physical environment that humans understand concepts and
store memories. Further research in this area may demonstrate that the mirror
neuron system plays a crucial role in allowing us to connect our own actions to
those of others. It is one part of a complex process in which humans imagine,
predict, and understand how we and others will behave (Frith & Frith, 2006). In
order to develop social cognition, this process is crucial for children in preschool
who are connecting their emotional experiences to those of their peers.
When children enter the preschool classroom, they extend their attachment
experiences into the greater social world. During this ongoing process of separation,
the child furthers his sense that he is an entity separate from his caregiver or family
and must develop coping strategies. He gradually replicates his attachment history

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with teachers and children who will reflect his identity and abilities in new ways.
For early verbal children, the process of attunement often begins with non-verbal
communication. Children might indicate interest by following another child through
space and mimicking her movement quality, gestures or actions on objects in the
classroom. Often this attunement dance among children will continue for days
before verbal language enters the play.
Research has shown that some children are better at attuning their bodies and
facial expressions than others (Boone & Cunningham, 1998). For 3-year-olds, much
successful activity can occur with very minimal verbal language. If a child is crying,
his friend might stand nearby, silently and solemnly, to show attunement with his
sadness. One child’s smile might develop into shared laughter with another. Soon
they jump up and down, waving their arms in unison to display their excitement. In
addition, attuned children can direct their movements or challenge the direction of
their play in ways that are exciting, safe, and natural. Less successful children may
fail to attune their bodily activity to others or may mimic another’s actions too
closely, crossing physical boundaries. For example, if a child is crying the less
attuned child may stand too close or may continue to move in a playful, active way
that does not demonstrate sympathy. Such actions can alienate the sad child and
prevent further social connection.
Many techniques for therapy also purposefully replicate the physical mirroring
process of early attachment (Levy, 1995). The therapist, through language and
movement, mimics, reflects, supports, and thus substantiates the patient’s narrative.
This provides a way for patients to organize their lives and begin to internalize their
experiences. As we know from the mirror neuron system, this process of mirroring
takes place not only in therapeutic work but also, on the neural level, throughout all
social interaction.
Teachers contribute to this attunement process by challenging children to observe
each other and infer each other’s emotions from cues given by body, movement, or
language. In everyday scenarios, if a child is sad, other children might try to figure
out how they might have guessed this: she is sitting alone along the perimeter of the
space, her body lacks tension, she is frowning or not smiling, her arms are close to
her body, and she is not answering questions. The teacher may mimic or use
language to reflect the child’s bodily expression of emotion. While ‘‘smile’’ and
‘‘frown’’ may be familiar vocabulary, ‘‘withdrawn’’ or ‘‘nervous’’ might be better
introduced primarily with physical imitation. Using gesture and movement as
acceptable means of communication in the classroom makes it possible for children
to express through movement and metaphor things that may not be accessible
through language (Levy, 2005). Further connecting these body cues to language
becomes one more step in the process of emotional appraisal through representation.
The same emotions that occur in everyday situations can be addressed through
body gesture and creative movement. During movement time, the children’s free
movement can be punctuated with emotional expression. As during emotion
charades, the children are asked to incorporate various emotions—angry, happy,
sad, and disgusted—into their movements, gestures, and facial expressions. Using
language and movement, the teacher reflects their expressions. The teacher might
note that many children use their hands like claws in showing anger or that most

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children lift their arms skyward when expressing happiness. The class examines
increasingly complex movement qualities, such as tension in relation to anger or
limpness in relation to sadness. As they explore these emotions, the children’s
associated movements begin to incorporate all of the body more fully. The children
use the space more freely and experiment further from the stereotypical emotional
representations. While much of emotional expression seems universal, children also
tend to use different shapes, space, and body parts to convey emotion (Boone &
Cunningham, 1998). A teacher can utilize this to point out the unique aspects of
emotional expression.
Reflecting emotional experiences, either with words or movement, helps the child
know that their emotions are being seen, understood, and respected. Studies of
social cognition show the significance of the connection between self-awareness and
awareness of others (Frith & Frith, 2007). Self-awareness will foster children’s
social awareness and their ability to negotiate increasingly complex social
situations. After recognition of an emotional event, a child may feel more
comfortable knowing and responding to her own visceral emotions. Or she may find
it easier to recognize a friend’s display of similar emotions in the future.
The process of appraisal, through movement or language reminiscing, aids the
child’s process of connecting her bodily experience of emotion to processes of
cortical control and regulation. This process is certainly still in development for
young children and may be aided by conscious habituation. Studies show that in
extreme cases of emotional or social disorders, such as autism spectrum disorder,
impaired emotional recognition can be ‘‘rescued’’ by conscious instruction in tasks
such as reading facial expression (Adolphs, 2006). Such findings lead us to explore
further the role of nurture and flexibility in young children’s developing emotional
and social cognition.

Child-directed Movement Practice

Once the curriculum addresses social cognition and emotional expression, children
spontaneously demonstrate their delight in shared understanding of yoga poses,
movement vocabulary, and emotion concepts using multiple modes of representa-
tion. My 3-year-old students who walked into the classroom as islands unto
themselves had grown exponentially. Now, when asked, they could work together to
form a line in the hallway. Through their joy in accomplishing this task, they
demonstrated how it is both visually and psychologically powerful to see yourself
and others create an organized form. As in the attunement process, emotional and
social development depend upon seeing your own actions or bodily expression
reflected in other bodies.
Beyond simply lining up together, the children were able to join together, of their
own accord, for very sophisticated group movement. One day, four children met up
in a corner of the classroom and danced in unison under the lead of Anne, a 3-year-
old student in the class. This dance performance was over 10 min long, an
impressive amount of time for 3-year-olds to regulate their individual impulses in
favor of the group dynamic. Into this spontaneous display, the children incorporated

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the tools for attunement, regulation, body awareness, and modes of representation
handed to them through the curriculum.
The children started in a circle, and Anne directed them to hold hands. She
verbally recalled various types of movements that had been part of the teacher’s
narrative reflection of free movement: tap, shake, bend over, twist, reach, shrug,
stomp. Like a seasoned dance/movement therapist, she used rhythmic speaking to
apply each movement type to isolated body parts. ‘‘Shake your head! Shrug your
shoulders, twist your stomach, now bend your knees and tap your toes,’’ she chanted
with glee. Occasionally, Anne instructed the children to freeze using different levels
in space and calling upon their powers of impulse regulation.
After an interval of intense movement, Anne directed the children away from
each other in space. They skipped to the outskirts of the area for an interlude during
which the children attended to their own impulses and wiggled about freely. Anne
led the children back to the circle of hands and guided them through a sequence of
yoga poses. ‘‘Do your downward dog! Now polar bear. Be snakes on your bellies,
sssssssssss.’’ Anne framed their movements, once more, with an enclosed circle
before directing them to pretend to swim through space, using her own imagery.
Anne brought the group together again to demonstrate a range of emotional display.
‘‘Pretend you’re sad. Now happy, happy! Be mad and stomp.’’ They stomped with
glee. Again and again, the children went through the range of movement vocabulary
familiar to them and expanded their own expressive vocabulary by mirroring each
other.
This sophisticated display contrasts sharply with the initial view of children
entering school with limited ability to organize and convey experiences of the self.
The children demonstrated how, once the tools for emotional expression and
representation are implemented into the curriculum, children can use them to
support each other’s development. Peer support, or scaffolding, is a powerful mode
of learning (Berk & Winsler, 1995) that is consistent with the idea that attunement
or mirroring, on both the social and neural levels, allows children to develop social
cognition.

Conclusion

From a curriculum rich in movement and emotion study, the children developed the
language, movement, and collaborative skills to create an expressive representation
of their ideas and impulses. By employing multiple modes of representation, they
expanded their ability to respond to the body’s needs and to use somatic cues. In this
way, they had become better able to connect their visceral emotional processing to
conscious appraisal. It is an integrated sense of body and emotion that contributes to
a strong sense of the self as an emotional, social, and cognitive being. This
integrated emotion system allows children to be receptive to each other,
demonstrating evolved social cognition and shared experience. These successful
affective experiences with shared movement, representation, and expression will
help children tackle the physical, cognitive, emotional, and social experiences that
await them.

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Author Biography

Lily Thom, MA
Ms. Thom has been a preschool teacher at the Park Avenue Christian Church Day School, in New York,
for six years. She received a BA in Women’s Studies from Wesleyan University (Middletown,
Connecticut) and a MA in Child Development from Sarah Lawrence College (Yonkers, New York). Her
masters’ thesis was a quantitative study examining how aspects of children’s social cognition are
expressed through physical interaction during play. In 2010 she will begin doctoral study in Clinical
Psychology at The Graduate Center of The City University of New York.

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