This treatment focuses on nurturing this primary relationship, by encouraging observation and interaction through both verbal and nonverbal expressive modes of communication. With support from current infancy research, these sessions highlight the dynamic interplay between the child's unique style, the parent's unique style and environmental influences.
The dance movement psychotherapy session enables the child to actively participate through their own evolving nonverbal and verbal communicative system. The initial goal is to broaden the child's social and communicative base by first helping the child experience their movements as communications, enabling exchange and interaction with others. Embedded in this process are sensory integration activities which enable the child to experience and learn about regulating and organizing their sensory system. The dance movement therapist and parent enter into a physical dialog with the child to develop a socially and emotionally supportive relationship as a way to gain insight into how the infant may be experiencing their world. Special attention is paid to those aspects of the experience that may be causing difficulties for the child.
The role of the dance movement therapist is to share, support, and decode the child's expressions through this exploration. During the decoding process, verbalizations become important also. This brings cognitive awareness to the child's nonverbal expressions, and supports the acquisition of language as a communicative tool that can effectively integrate verbal and nonverbal expressions.
Enabling the young child to actively participate in the environment in a communicative way through nonverbal, movement expression enhances not only social/emotional development but motor, cognitive and verbal development as well. Encouraging a positive social interaction can be the primary motivating force for achievement on all other levels of development. Encouragement and motivation through positive and loving social experiences is the key to successful growth supporting children to reach their potential. In this way dance movement therapy fosters the integration of all aspects of a child's development.