Creativity is your child's first glimpse of self-empowerment. Your child's early creative development will one day be reflected in his ability to use his gifts and cope with shortcomings. From birth, your child's 100 billion brain cells have been organizing and making sense of his world. Unlike the adult definition of creativity, which too often includes replication, a child's sense of creativity involves turning all of the aspects of his environment into a meaningful language.
Early Creativity
The incomprehensible world of sounds, tastes, textures, scents and colors begins sculpting your child's perceptions about life from the age of six months and on. You can nurture your child's creativity during this time by providing plenty of opportunities for him to explore his senses. "A baby's job is to create theories about what the world is like and then test those hypotheses," says "The Scientist in the Crib" author and psychology professor, Alison Gopnik.
Creativity & Motor Skills
Creativity takes on new meaning as your child's motor skills steadily evolve. By the age of 7 months, your child will begin connecting his sensate perceptions with physical movement, says the website Healthy Children.Shaking a rattle, kicking at a mobile and learning to make sounds to fulfill his needs are all avenues for creative expression during this time. This newfound sense of control ushers in self-awareness through a relationship with the external world that defines likes and dislikes.
Aspiring Toddlers
From ages 1 to 2 years, children are filled with the excitement and curiosity that comes with physical independence. Gopmik says that your newbie toddler's creative development comes from exploring and putting unlikely things together to see what happens. Nurture your child's creativity by providing a safe space for him to explore and assist you in your daily activities. If you're baking, consider giving him his own bowl and ingredients or filling a kitchen drawer with cookware meant just for him.
Toddlers
Toddlers aged 3 to 5 years develop creatively through the myriad of answers that lie at the end of the proverbial question "why?" Exposing your child to a variety of people, places and things during toddler years will help him develop a model for answering some of life's larger questions. PBS says that creative playtime with other children is vital to emotional and physical development as it teaches your child's social skills and coping mechanisms and gives him a sense of self-confidence.
References
- "The Scientist in the Crib: What Early Learning Tells Us About the Mind; Alison Gopnik, et al; 1999
- Healthy Children; Developmental Milestones: 7 Months
- PBS.org; Creativity and Play: Fostering Creativity
