Impact_of_Creativity

Impact of Creativity on Children What is Creativity' Creativity can be defined as the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations and so on. It can be characterised by originality, progressiveness, and imagination. “Creative exercises are designed to help you get absorbed in the process of creating without worrying about the end product. Children do this naturally.” (http://www.creativity-portal.com/bc/other/children.teach.creativity.html) Why is it Important' One of the most important concepts of creativity is self-expression. This allows the children to express their feelings and ideas about and towards the world around them. It is one of the many ways they can communicate their needs to others as it reflects their feelings, emotions and imaginations. Creative activities allow children to grow intellectually, socially, physically, and mentally and therefore plays an essential role in child development, especially as it comes across all the different areas of development. What is the difference between formal and informal activity' Creative play or activity can either be formal or informal. Formal activities involve children interacting with an adult, who usually leads the activity. These types of activities are structured or planned and are observed and recorded as they usually have an objective or aims. For example, a teacher led activity would be an adult encouraging a child to stack building blocks to form a tower. Their performance would have been observed and recorded for that particular activity. Informal activities, on the other hand, are spontaneous. These activities are led by the child as they play freely in what they perceive as natural to them. They don’t have any objectives and are observed as they occur. An example of this would be if a child hears music and starts dancing or clapping their hands, an adult would then encourage the activity by dancing or clapping along to the music. Observations from this kind of activity can be recorded as a “catch as you can”. This kind of observation can show what the child has learned to do or is already capable of doing. It is important that the children have a balanced exposure to both types of activities because adult intervention is needed to guide and inform the child and child led activities allow opportunity for the naturally curious minds to blossom. Creative learning and Creativity Creative learning is about how children are actively involved in their own learning and ability to make choices and decisions. This can be attained by providing a creative environment that allows discovery through play and appreciating creative efforts. Creativity is about risk taking and forming links, giving the child opportunity to discover and convey themselves through a variety of media or materials including, dance, music, making things, drawing, painting and make believe to give rise to new unique innovative things as a result. Being creative is strongly associated with play and can emerge through a child being engaged to their own free-play activity. Benefits of creativity for the well-being of children and young people: Being engaged in fun and creative activities can be enjoyable and absorbing for children. Research has shown that creativity helps children to develop and gain skills and abilities that will enable them to cope and deal with mundane and complex situations as they grow and mature into young adults, such as the following: * | Appreciation of different ways of looking at the world | * | Collaboration – being keen to work together as a team | * | Communication – developing better communication through talking, listening, writing or pictures | * | Concentration – focusing on what they are doing | * | Developing good relationships – working together and making new friends | * | Discipline – developing self-control through a requirement to practice (for example: some artistic activities, such as playing a musical instrument, need practice) | * | Emotional intelligence – being able to express emotions | * | Empathy – understanding what it can feel like being someone else (particularly through role play drama activities) | * | Imagination – bringing ideas to life and adding excitement to their world | * | Independence of thought – discovering things for themselves | * | Interaction – being involved in a group and having peer support | * | Intrinsic motivation – participating in something for pleasure rather than external reward, so wanting to do it for themselves | * | Language – increasing vocabulary, reading and writing skills | * | Open-mindedness – being open to new ideas | * | Physical activity – participating in activities that encourage movement | * | Positive emotion – having fun and enjoying what they are doing | * | Problem-solving – being able to explore different solutions. | Different types of Creative Activities and their potential benefits * Sedentary- These are the types of activities that doesn’t require the use of muscles or only uses very little movements. For example, reading, writing, sewing, playing board or computer games and watching television. Although the activity requires minimal physical movement, such activities develop key skills like communication, problem solving and reasoning, which are vital for people needing to cope with real life situations. In other words, these activities brings up essential basic training for children in terms of developing socially and mentally * Active- These on the other hand are the opposite of sedentary activities. They require the use of muscles and encourage large bodily movements. For example playing sports and exercising. These activities allow the children to be physically and mentally healthy. The body require regular exercise as part of keeping fit and maintaining good immune system. It also allows children to develop socially when the activity requires a group. In this way, the children develop competitiveness, self-confidence, and sportsmanship, which are traits that contribute to ones personality. * Cerebral- These activities uses arithmetic and problem solving skills. Examples of cerebral activities are chess and playing computer. This can be associated to sedentary activities, but focuses more on the mental development of children. Activities such as playing board games allows the brain to develop logical and strategic thinking; skills that can later on come useful in school or even at work. * Shared- These are the activities that require a group of people working together. Playing sports like basketball, football and baseball will develop social skills in terms of team work and communication as such activities require understanding and communicating with others. * Solitary- This type of activity requires a sole participant and focuses on their own ability. Examples of such activities are reading, drawing, going for a walk, playing puzzles etc. These activities don’t require other people’s intervention and the activity is done in your own time. Through such activity, the children have the opportunity to develop their own skills and get to know themselves. It also gives them the opportunity to analyse their own ability and explore their skills. The importance of encouraging children to recognise and value creativity. Creativity and Creative play are essential to children as it presents a learning curve in young children; it supports other curriculum and developmental areas. Creativity is important as its opens up opportunities for children to express their feelings and emotions and explore their own self-identity. It allows them the liberty of being able. For instance, during imaginative play, a child is able to be a super hero and have self-confidence. They are able to help others and therefore feel good about themselves. Imaginative play helps children get in touch with their creative side, and activities like such allow children to develop social, emotional and communication skills as they often play with other children and create their own characters; characters with traits they often copy or learn from others, such as friends, family or teachers. Supporting children and young people to take part in organised creative activities Supportive environment and atmosphere: Creative and Creative learning should take place in a encouraging, enabling environment, where they are able to enjoy and freely express themselves. A supportive environment allows children to explore and experiment confidently. Focusing on the children’s emotions is essential as this affects their overall experience. It is important that the children feel confident to explore around the adults so that they are able to try out new things and master skills. This means that adults supervising the activity should ensure that the children do not feel rushed or forced to do the activity, but instead adapt some changes into the activity to fit in the children’s interest. Children can sense other people’s feelings and attitudes, therefore it is important that positive impression is made and encouragement is enforced, this will create a positive creative atmosphere. Staffs that are troubled by mess and overly ardent on tidiness usually avert creative learning as children often associate different materials or objects. So, if a child sees a toy from a basket which has not been put out for the activity then they can make a connection to the toys that were out. However, if staff becomes anxious over the mess and restrict the activity to its plan, then they have prevented a child from using their creativity as they weren’t able to make connections and ‘think out of the box’. As a result the child will feel as though they cannot explore or try new things and they will feel contained. It is also important for children to have role models during play. When children see adults being creative or join their imaginative play they are able to develop positive attitudes towards creativity. Supportive Physical environment: The availability of resources greatly affects the children’s potential to be imaginative and enjoy the creative arts. Therefore it is important to think about the resources we provide the children for each of the areas in the setting. * Collages- Many children enjoys sticking and putting things together, therefore, to enhance creative experience, children should be provided with interesting set of textures, colours, and shapes. It is advisable to use a variety of resources as it gives the children more options. Some children may even prefer to simply explore the materials available. * Painting and Mark making- Children can enjoy mark-making and painting activities so long as they are provided with interesting and suitable resources. It is important that they are provided with large areas and canvases to allow them to create patterns in large spaces where they are able to freely express their creativity. Resources can be made of paint brushes, chalks, charcoal, coloured pencils etc. And sensory materials can also be used such as sand, corn flour, water etc. * Role play and small world- Role play and small world activities give the children an opportunity to create their own character, either by pretending or using toy figures. They are able to imitate their role models and manifest different traits of their personality through play, therefore it is important that they are given resources that reflect to reality as often as possible to give them the best creative learning experience as much as possible. This can be done by providing real materials in role play such as vegetables and utensils instead of plastic ones and variable equipments such as planks, boxes, ribbons and fabrics for them to experiment with. For children to be stimulated, they should be introduced to variety. We should always keep an eye out for new ideas and resources that we can bring into a setting, treasure baskets and heuristic play toys should be rotated or varied regularly. This gives the adults and the children an opportunity to explore new grounds together and practice the skills they have already acquired. Importance and Benefits of spending creative time with young people and children Children exposed to creative learning in their early years have better chance of fostering creative skills earlier; skills that can prove useful in many aspects of life. It is important for parents and other adults to show interest and spend creative time with their children in order to create a creativity enabling and creative learning environment. It is also important for children to have an adult supervision and participation in their activities so that guidance and help are always available and they can be provided with inspirations, especially if the children show interest in creating projects such as cards and making collages. One of the benefits of spending creative time with your children is that, because they are able to express themselves, you are able to get to know their creative side and be a part of it. It is also another way of spending quality time and bonding with your children. The presence of an adult also ensures that the children are provided with the right guidance and develop their skills and get better; it is vital that their progress are noticed and appreciated. In turn the children will improve their skills and enhance their self-confidence because they will feel that they are able. And because creativity and creative learning can be associated to many aspects of education such as music, reasoning, critical thinking and language and literacy, the children then become well prepared for further education.