encouraging CREATIVITY...how?

[Nikita]

Stimulating Your Child's Creativity
       (in Brainy-Child.com)

According to the experts, it is possible to encourage or inhibit the development and expression of creativity in young children. Most theories of child development view young children as highly creative, with a natural tendency to fantasize, experiment, and explore their physical and conceptual environment. However this high level of creativity is not necessarily maintained throughout childhood and into adulthood. The level of creativity declines when they start the kindergarten and peaks again when they reach puberty.

Creativity is essentially a form of problem solving. But it is a special type of problem solving--one that involves problems for which there are no easy answers: that is, problems for which popular or conventional responses do not work. Creativity involves adaptability and flexibility of thought. These are the same types of skills that numerous reports on education have suggested are critical for students.

For a proper understanding of children's creativity, one must distinguish creativity from intelligence and talent. Researcher has argued that intelligence and creativity are independent of each other, and a highly creative child may or may not be highly intelligent. Creativity goes beyond possession and use of artistic or musical talent. In this context, talent refers to the possession of a high degree of technical skill in a specialized area. Thus an artist may have wonderful technical skills, but may not succeed in evoking the emotional response that makes the viewer feel that a painting, for example, is unique. It is important to keep in mind that creativity is evidenced not only in music, art, or writing, but also throughout the curriculum, in science, social studies and other areas.

Is your child creative? Creativity can be assessed informally by parents or teachers, or formally by tests and the experts. One of the more common tests is "alternative uses" test, whereby the test subject is asked to think of as many uses as possible for a common object. For example, when we ask four-year-olds to tell us "all the things they can think of that are red," we find that children not only list wagons, apples and cardinals, but also chicken pox and cold hands. These tests assess divergent thinking and are usually scored in relation to both the quantity and the quality of the answers. Children's responses may be either popular or original, with the latter considered evidence of creative potential.

For young children, the focus of creativity should remain on process, i.e. the "generation of ideas". Adult acceptance of multiple ideas in a non-evaluative atmosphere will help children generate more ideas.
 

[Nikita]

How can adults encourage creativity?

* Provide an environment that allows the child to explore and play without undue restraints. The atmosphere should reflect the adults' encouragement and acceptance of mistake, risk-taking, innovation, and uniqueness, along with amount of mess noise.

* Choice of materials. Without spending great amount of money, materials like paper goods of all kinds; writing and drawing tools; materials for constructions and collages, such as buttons, stones, shells, beads, and seeds; and sculpting materials, such as play dough, goop, clay, and shaving cream can be used. Children use these materials most productively and imaginatively when they themselves have help select, organize, sort and arrange them.

* Accept unusual ideas from children by suspending judgment of children's divergent problem solving. Respect their efforts and let them know that you have confidence in their ability to do well. Let the child have both freedom and responsibility to deal with the consequences of their thinking.

* Use creative problem solving in all parts of the curriculum. Use the problems that naturally occur in everyday life. Encourage the child to experiment with the novel and unusual. Listen to the child's questions and comments about his or her observations. Clarify what the child has observed by repeating what you have heard and ask further questions about the experience. New questions and observations may emerge from this process of exploration together

* Creativity does not follow the clock. Children need extended, unhurried time to explore and do their best work. Allow time for the children to explore all possibilities, moving from popular to more original ideas.

* Children find it hard to be creative without any concrete inspiration. Instead, they prefer to draw on the direct evidence of their senses or memories. These memories can become more vivid and accessible through the adults' provocations and preparations. For example, children can be encouraged to represent their knowledge and ideas before and after they have watched an absorbing show, taken a field trip, or observed and discussed an interesting plant or animal they saw in the park.

* Expose your child to a diversity of cultures, experiences, people, and ways of thinking. Let them see that there are different ways to think about a problem. Encourage children to try new experiences within their age level abilities and expectations.

* Emphasize process rather than product. Relax and enjoy the creative process with your child. Children who are constantly directed to conform to expected outcomes lose the confidence and spontaneity essential for the development of creative thinking

* Beware of barriers to creativity. Rewards- when people do not expect a reward, they are more creative and enjoy the process more. Expected external evaluation- Knowing beforehand that a piece of art is going to be graded can lead to a decrease in creativity. Peer pressure - There is some evidence that pressure to conform can lead to temporary decreases in creativity. Surveillance - Being observed by others while engaged in a creative process can undermine creativity.

Do you need special toys to stimulate creativity? The experts say no, there are many easy tasks you and your child can do together to promote creativity.

1. Use creative questioning. One way to help children to think more creatively is to ask them how they would change things to make them better. (What would taste better if it were sweeter? What would be more fun if it were faster or slower? What would be happier if it were smaller or bigger? What would be more interesting if it went backwards?)

2. Ask, "What would happen if?" (What would happen if all the cars were gone? What would happen if everyone wore the same clothes? What would happen if no one cleaned the house?)

3. Ask "in-how-many-different-ways" questions? (How many different ways can a button be used? How many different ways can a string be used?)

4. Use creative play. Activities such as "follow the leader" encourage a child to think of creative movement and experience the reward of others following their example. Use simple materials (blocks, mud, sand, clay, water) that the child can build and design using their own skills.

5. Use a continuing story concept. Someone starts the story and then each person adds a part. Read a story and act it out. Use puppets to act out a plot.

6. Use props to create new ideas. (Animal cracker game - child chooses one cracker; looks at it; then eats it. Then the child becomes that animal for 1-2 minutes. Use creative movement to act out how the animal acts and moves.)

7. Use role playing (family happenings, simulation games, school situations) to help children see the viewpoints of others and to explore their feelings. Have children describe the people that they see in pictures as to how they might feel or think.

[cassidy336]

Thanks for posting this.  I just read a book about this that has similar information.  It really stressed not giving rewards including saying "good job" because that makes it less about the process. 

Also, I read somewhere that using things in a way other than their intended use is a great thing to do. 

[Nikita]

It's been an issue bothering me, as my oldest 2, born close together, never seemed to be creative.  Not into imaginative role-playing.  Was it because they had each other, and more solitary children have a better fantasy life? My son had more imagination, but I had to look for ways to foster it.  I found when he was away from his older sisters he had more imagination, such as when in the bath. Even now at 9.5 years old I try to get him to bathe rather than shower, for as long as possible. I leave heaps of toys in the bathroom for him, so his dinosaurs, superheroes and monsters can have amazing adventures. I found that TV and entertainment videos are what most kids want to do... just veg out infront of the screen. It's very hard to fight against this... and people wonder why I invest in EDUCATIONAL dvds... they werent around much when my oldest kids were young.. just Barney and Sesame st.  Teletubbies was the hottest new "educational" program. No wonder they wanted to watch Disney movies. I'm hoping to keep the younger ones from realising there is a plethora of these storyline movies, and if they must watch TV, let them watch something that teaches them at the same time. The likelihood is that they'll get bored and go play.

[zaku]

How Do You Know If Your Child Is Creative?
Torrance believed that by observing your child at work and play, you may detect creativity.

Below are the key signs of creativity, according to Dr. Torrance and quoted directly from Lagermann’s interview:

Curiosity
“The child’s questioning is persistent and purposeful. He/she digs under the surface. As a baby he/she handles things, shakes, twists and turns them upside down. Later he/she takes things apart to see how they work. He/she experiments with words and ideas, always trying to wring new meaning from them.”

Flexibility
“If one approach doesn’t work, the imaginative child quickly thinks of another. To older boys trying in vain to throw a rope over a high branch to make a swing, an eight-year old suggested, ‘Why not fly a kite over it and then pull up the rope with the string?’”

Sensitivity To Problems
“A child is quick to see gaps in information, exceptions to rules, and contradictions. A father tells of reciting Mother Goose to his inquisitive four-year old: ‘You try something simple and straightforward like ‘Tom, Tom, the Piper’s Son.’ Right away he starts interrupting: ‘Was Tom about my age? If Tom was my age, how did he carry a pig? If the pig was so small, how did it kill the goose? What’s a calaboose? You mean they put little boys in jail?’”

Redefinition
“Children can see hidden meanings in statements that others take at face value, and see connections between things that to others seem unrelated. It was a creative child who said, ‘Eternity is a clock without hands.’”

Self-Feeling
“Children are self-directive and can work alone for long periods -- on their own project. Merely following directions bores them.”

Originality
“Children have surprising, uncommon ideas. Their drawings and stories have a style that marks them as their own.”

Insight
“Children have easy access to realms of the mind which noncreative people visit only in the dreams. As one five-year-old told Dr. Torrance at a birthday party when she put her hand into a grab bag: ‘This is how I get ideas – just reach in and scrunch around in my mind [un]til I feel like pulling something out.’”
  

[Kimba15]

Thankyou for this article.

Creativity is very important and it is something that I believe should be fostered in all children.

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