Creative Development in Children

Developing Creativity in Kids

When a child is young, they are full of innocence… Innocence and vulnerability. Everything is new. Anything is possible.  Children are not limited to a certain way of thinking.  Their mind is fresh.

In the field of Early Childhood Education, many theorists have found that investing in and enhancing that creativity is essential to the overall development of a child. Creativity can be described as the ability to see things in new ways. In thinking about young children, that is exactly how all children see the world, new.

Over the course of time, as children grow up, they experience things. Parents teach them how things are, and because they innately yearn to please their parents and teachers, they will always strive in getting the right answer. What begins to happen is that children actually become less creative as they grow older. Sometimes, we find ourselves telling children how to think, when in actuality, we should be considering their fresh and innocent outlook.

I saw a little boy one day walking like a duck through Panera, and his mother said to him, “That’s not how we walk.”   I thought, why not?

Let us allow our children to be who they are, to express their creativity, to be excited about possibilities.

So whether that 3 year draws a purple horse instead of a brown one…
Wears red and green together not on Christmas…
Or dances through the supermarket …

Let’s embrace this innocence and strive to become a little more like a child. Let’s embrace creative thinking!