Effects of a program of rhythm and dance in the psychomotor performance of children with Down Syndrome: the Laban method as a methodological subsidy

Abstract

This paper aims to examine an intervention program, and their contents, based on rhythm and dance as teaching strategies for psychomotor stimulation of people with Down syndrome (DS). It is a quasi-experimental study approach, with direct intervention in the sample group. The procedures for data collection will address four stages, namely: 1) Interview with parents or guardians, in order to assess their perception regarding the behavior of their dependents, 2) With the research participants, it will be applied the psychomotor battery of Vitor da Fonseca (1975), 3) After, it will be held 24 sessions with a speech of 60 minutes each week. The interventions will have the manipulation of variables that involve activities / lessons of rhythm and dance, based on the methodology of Rudolf Laban (1978), 4) At the end, it will be reapplied, the Psychomotor Battery of Vitor da Fonseca, to evaluate the effect caused by intervention as well as the interviews with parents or guardians. To analyze the performance before and after intervention, the Friedman test will draw comparisons between the two moments of study and, if statistically significant, the Wilcoxon test will indicate which moment a difference was observed. Statistical significance will be fixed at values below 5% (p <0.05) and the software version 5.2 BioEstat willperform all statistical procedures. (AU)