You can’t use up creativity. The more you use the more you have.

You can’t use up creativity. The more you use the more you have.
-Maya Angelou-

Yes, creativity is important.

Absolutely, creativity is vital. It goes beyond merely helping children excel in art or music; it paves their unique path to success. By nurturing a child’s creativity from a young age, we enable them to generate their original ideas when solving problems, making discoveries, and inventing in this ever-changing world. It’s evident that our world has undergone rapid transformation, and there’s an increasing array of tasks that could be taken over by artificial intelligence. To ensure your child remains one step ahead of the game, it’s crucial to foster creativity as a cognitive skill from a young age, enabling them to be the ones who effectively harness new technologies to create fresh opportunities.

To put all these into practice, here are some valuable tips I found useful from my own professional experience for nurturing the little one’s creativity:

Create opportunities for creativity and problem-solving.

Encourage children to engage in open-ended play, offering them the chance to explore the world around them. Open-ended play, or free play, allows children to exercise their imaginations while participating in activities with others. This approach also enhances their problem-solving skills when encountering new challenges. In practical terms, it could involve activities such as constructing with Lego or building blocks or engaging in imaginative play where children create scenarios.

Give them the freedom to let their imagination roam.

Children learn about the world through imaginative and creative play. As adults, it’s essential for us to take a step back while providing opportunities for children to make their own decisions. Allow them the time to actively immerse themselves in various aspects of the world. Children need to take charge of their exploration, allowing them to hypothesise, experiment, explore, and discover. They absorb ideas and theories through their own experiences, while they tend to grasp only superficial facts when adults quickly answer their questions. Adults can also guide their exploration by asking probing questions to further ignite their curiosity.

Remember, every child is an artist.

Allowing children to express themselves through art offers significant benefits in their creative development. By expressing themselves through various forms of art such as painting, music, storytelling, and creative writing, children learn to convey their feelings, creative ideas, and thoughts to others. Many argue that children are born with boundless imagination. Art and craft activities provide fun and interactive opportunities for children to hone a range of skills, including fine motor skills, problem-solving, and critical thinking. With the positive experience of expressing themselves through art, children also bolster their interpersonal skills and self-confidence.

Engage all the senses.

As a Paediatric Occupational Therapist, I advocate for multisensory experiences in children’s activities. It’s preferable for children to engage in activities with all their senses—sight, hearing, smell, touch, and more. This approach can be integrated into various forms of sensory play for children, such as finger painting, play-dough activities, or drama with DIY props. For instance, in the case of painting, you can provide children with different mediums, from crayons and watercolours to paints, on diverse materials. This approach also offers them the opportunity to learn how different materials function, how certain materials feel (such as soft fabrics or hard plastics), and how different elements work in harmony. Playing musical instruments comes with numerous benefits and certainly does children a favour in the long run. It’s also crucial for us, as adults, to be creative when devising activities for children. Mix and match various activities, such as creating a homemade, self-decorated marimba from a plastic bottle or tissue boxes, thereby accomplishing two goals. Sometimes, children might even come up with their own ingenious ideas!

Encouragement is paramount.

In addition to initiating creativity, it’s vital to maintain a positive environment and experience for nurturing children’s creativity. Studies inform us that a stimulating environment, a wide range of activities, a sufficient timeframe, and good opportunities to put what they’ve learned into practice significantly enhance children’s creative development. As adults, it’s easy to inject our values or judgments into children’s work. For example, we might criticize a piece of art for not being “perfect” enough or deem their music as “not sophisticated.” However, it’s crucial to recognise that the process of creating something new is equally important. Instead of imposing our values or knowledge on children, it might not be a bad idea to let children experience and play freely. Let experience be their teacher. Encourage their exploration and respect their perspective. As a therapist, I always stress that play is children’s way of working. They also invest substantial effort in exploring the world while playing. It’s essential for adults to learn to appreciate this. This fosters their self-confidence and propels them to explore creativity in diverse ways.

So, there you have it—creativity is of the utmost importance. It’s a real pleasure to be part of children’s lives and watch them grow. Being an adult who wholeheartedly supports children’s creativity is also a learning experience. With that said, it’s an experience that both children and adults can enjoy as they engage in activities and immerse themselves in the world of children’s creativity.

I hope you all have a wonderful time creating new, innovative art with the little artists in your life. We look forward to seeing all your creative artworks!

Stay tuned for more resources for children and their artistic endeavours on our HatchDraw platform. Thank you for reading. Until next time, see you!!