Nurture Childhood Creativity

Children are instinctively creative. Childhood creativity is displayed in all that children play. My daughter at 4 cut my new Sari. When asked what was she up to, she said in her sweet voice, “Mumma I am stitching a dress for you”.

I of course got very upset; at that time I did not know that I was damaging her instinct for fashion designing, for life. Every parent experiences similar situations, but only a few are able to recognize the creativity bend in their children’s temperament.

Like all other childhood development, it is up to us to stream these momentary glimpses of childhood creativity in to creative art. Children learn from examples. Without fearing the mess it may create, give colors and brush in children's hands right from early development days and watch them learn to paint.

Children learn what they see

My friend’s daughter learnt to paint at the age of 2 years. The mother while doing her own art work would hand crayons and water color brushes to her daughter from the age when children first learn to hold pencil and scribble.

Share child’s excitement

The child got excited with the effect she could create on the paper and the mother shared her excitement. Every little piece of scribble was saved; many were put up on the walls of child’s room with date subscribed to them.

The little toddler would show off her paintings to all who visited them. The admiration that followed not only encouraged her to do better, but also boosted her self-esteem and thereby personality development.

Another friend of mine played Sitar, an Indian musical instrument. Her daughter’s favorite toy was Sitar and today she is a professional musician.

Do not expect perfect creative art from children

Let child have her way, and admire the outcome. Keep control on your adult expectations. Children can easily sense parents' dissatisfaction, which puts them off from trying further.

Types of creativity in children

Painting and drawing though the commonest, are not the only creative art children express. Some children like to make clay toys, others make objects from cardboard and kitchen cartons. Many like to write and so on.

Children play “house-house” where they act out each character, arrange their little
doll-house and do cooking. All of it is childhood creativity. Same holds true also for outdoor games and light reading habits.

Childhood creativity is the result of cognitive skills development and the development of logical thinking during middle childhood.

The more children indulge into creative games, the more they learn to get along with peers, implement their logical thoughts and master motor skills. Creativity refines their development in the cognitive domain and thereby sharpens their intelligence. It also helps in language development and brain growth. Wonder where lies the area of creativity in our brain? Click here!

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Constructive utilization of childhood creativity

Preserve every bit of your child’s creations. Help them organize and keep them safely. They can even be encouraged to use them as gift articles. Giving own creations as gifts adds value to the creations and boosts children’s self-esteem and self-concept.

Helps instill sense of gratitude and develop the ability to give

Use childhood creativity to instill the sense of gratitude and develop the ability to give generously. Gratitude is an abstract sense, which children commonly do not recognize till late.

Children are naturally on the taking side. Even if they are made to give presents, it is what their parents have bought and given them to give. Active contribution and feelings lack in such actions. Instead, if a child is asked to create a gift to give, it stimulates child’s own feelings for the person and the occasion.

Use children's creative art as gifts

Encourage children to give a self made thank you gift whenever there arises an opportunity to show gratitude towards someone; could be anyone from parents to pets.

This could be best used as greeting cards, small birthday gifts and birthday return gifts. Birthdays are becoming more and more materialistic; expensive gifts, expensive venues and expensive decor. Even so the return gifts are kept at the minimum possible cost: Yes there is a reason for it – I fully understand that, but here I am evaluating its impact on psychosocial development of children.

Unknowingly year after year we the parents are reinforcing in our children to expect expensive gifts and give cheaper gifts. Most children by their sixth birthday begin to associate birthday celebrations with the gifts they are going to receive. Most often the birthday child is neither involved in return gifts nor in thanking the guest for taking time to come to the party.

Giving child’s creations as gifts on such occasions leads to child’s active involvement. Children thereby not only learn to appreciate, share and give but also their creativity gets a big boost.

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How can “house house game” be utilized as sharing creativity?

Oh easy!
Let the child throw a party for the dolls or any other favorite toy of the friends: The rest will depend on the creativity of the children and their parents!

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