Abstract

Dance is a physical/sports and artistic activity appropriate to the comprehensive development of students, and can be considered as a means to promote inclusion. Thus, the objective of this study was to carry out a narrative review related to the benefits of dance in students with Down Syndrome (DS) in the child education stage. In order to carry out the search of documents, the keywords “Child Education”, “Dance”, and “Down Syndrome” were used. Manuscripts were searched in the Web of Science, Scopus, SPORTDiscus and PubMed data bases, up to January, 2023. In order to adjust the search of the object of study, a series of inclusion criteria was established: i) any type of scientific document relating to the topic; ii) manuscripts indicating, within the text body, at least one description of the students with DS that is at least 50 words in length; iii) documents written in English, Spanish and/or Portuguese; and iv) manuscripts that allow to obtain the full text. A total 9 documents were obtained. The results showed a scarcity of documents concerning the domain of study, as a result of this being a very specific topic. Similarly, the manuscripts included in this review report that the benefits that could derive from dance for students with DS have to do with posture awareness and control, the improvement of social aspects and improvements of a cognitive and emotional nature, as well as enjoyment. Therefore, it is recommended to expand the number of future research projects related to dance in the educational system, and concretely in the child education stage, due to the multiple benefits this brings to students with disabilities.

Keywords disability; Down Syndrome; dance; teenagers