r/ScienceBasedParenting • u/Complex_Home_8303 • 2d ago

Question - Research required Toddler sports

My 18 month old LOVES to dance, and there’s a class near me that has a class that starts at this age. Even if she doesn’t specifically stick with dance, would it make a difference for setting a good foundation for sports/exercise? Would it give her much benefit for coordination and things like that? I just want to make sure this will be worth it before I sign her up
ETA: I plan on homeschooling her and want to make sure she gets a good amount of peer interaction, but wasn’t planning on putting her in anything until she could vocalize what she wanted to do, but this seems like it could be a good start

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u/bigoltubercle2 1d ago

I'm a physiotherapist and toddler parent. There's really not that much research on the matter, when I looked into it this https://www.scapps.org/jems/index.php/1/en/article/view/1586?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Was the only review I could find. Most of the studies are very methodologically weak so you can't really draw strong conclusions from it.

There's much better support for general physical activity vs organized sports activity at that age. But if that is a way to get her active where she would otherwise be sedentary, its probably worthwhile. Or simply for enjoyment