Rainbow Dance Developmental Goals
Rainbowdance© is a parent/teacher friendly intervention which encourages self-esteem, self-regulation and social empathy through the use of repetitive gesture, song, and movement. As the number of infants and toddlers attending full time day care programs increases, the opportunity for dyadic relationship building decreases.
Rainbowdance© provides children with the opportunity to experience the attachment necessary for healthy relationship building, minimizing an orientation toward peer violence.
Rainbowdance© has been developed as a continuum for toddlers, preschoolers, pre- kindergarten children transitioning to elementary schools, and elementary children. Sequences address the unique challenges of each developmental age group.
For Toddlers, the goal is attachment. Trust in the social and physical environments must be developed before any other goal setting or curriculum can be initiated. The repetitive and integrated nature of Rainbowdance's Toddler Attunement program enables even the most challenged infants and toddlers to experience safety and dependability through mirroring, song and natural body movements.
Rainbowdance© for Pre School children continues to reinforce trust and stability through the use of repetitive and integrated movements and sound. With the familiar beginning and ending circles framing the structure of this intervention, activities which encourage exploration of the environment are sandwiched between; Children explore: their relationships to each other, self regulation and modulation, and their unique places in the natural world. The dynamic relationship between individual and group esteem is woven into the Rainbowdance© experience.
Anticipating the challenges placed upon Pre Kindergarten children as they enter the Public Elementary School system, we have created a program, which encourages the development of the social and academic strengths necessary for success. Themes to explore and develop include: Self soothing and self regulation, perseverance, individual and collective self esteem, creative rather than violent solutions to threat, and respect for oneself, the peer group, and the physical environment.
For Elementary school aged children, Rainbowdance© continues: following secure attachment and beginning exploration of the social and physical environments, meaning and purpose emerge as goals for the healthy child. The challenges we address at this developmental level are as follows:
1) Understanding one's place in the Greater reality of Nature and the Universe, minimizing the sense of isolation.
2) Experiencing the value of responsibility to and service for the social (elders) and physical (ecology) environment
3) Choosing creative and cooperative rather than violent solutions to conflict as they grow to understand the peer group to be a life promoting not a life threatening resource and
4) Transforming the perception of diversity from exclusionary to rich..