Parents ask me about ballet first, jazz second, and tap is the one that goes on the maybe list. I think that is the wrong way round.
It is rhythm training that happens to use feet
Tap is the only dance form where the child produces the sound. That closes a feedback loop nothing else in the timetable closes: they can hear immediately whether they were on the beat, and so can everybody else.
For a child who does not naturally track rhythm, that is a far more effective teacher than an adult saying “and one, and two” at them.
It is very hard to do badly and quietly
Which sounds like a warning and is actually the pedagogical point. Mistakes in tap are audible. There is no hiding at the back and no bluffing through a sequence you have not learned.
Children who find that intolerable usually find it intolerable for about three weeks and then find it addictive, because the flip side is that progress is also audible and it arrives fast.
Noise, which is the real objection
Yes. It is loud. That is the instrument.
Most parents adapt faster than they expect, and there is a reasonable argument that a child hammering out a time step in a hallway is a better problem than the same child on a screen.
What it gives them that lasts
Ankle strength and coordination, an internal sense of pulse, and the specific confidence that comes from producing something audible in front of other people. That last one shows up in unexpected places years later.
Practical
Ask me about shoes before you buy anything, and ask what a first session involves. Two of my three children’s classes want a message beforehand.
Send it. It takes a minute and it is the difference between a first class that works and a first class I spend sorting things out in the doorway.