The Art of Creating Why Art Is Important for Early Childhood Development

April 26, 2022 Post a Comment

The benefits of fine art for kids are many and include problem-solving abilities, creativity, literacy, fine & gross motor skills, connectedness, and agreement.

Updated Jan 2022

Everyone says art and creativity are important, but are you wondering what the actual art benefits for kids are ?

Today I'g sharing some of the many fine art benefits for kids likewise as a quote well-nigh children's art that I just dearest.

Just i of the many benefits of fine art…

The Benefits of Art for Kids

Excerpted from The Artful Parent: Simple Ways to Fill Your Family unit'due south Life with Art & Creativity , © 2021 past Jean Van't Hul. Reprinted by organization with Roost Books , an imprint of Shambhala Publications Inc., Boston, MA.

Educators tell us that art encourages fine motor skills, neural development, and problem-solving abilities and that it can be used effectively to teach and understand other cardinal subjects such as reading, writing, math, and scientific discipline.

Therapists tell us that art is valuable because it allows children to process their world, to deal with sometimes scary emotions in a safe way, and because it gives them disquisitional sensory input.

Artists tell us that art is important for its own sake—as a source of beauty and expression, every bit well equally simply for the process of creating.

Kids tell us that fine art is fun, an activity they enjoy.

Parents tell us that fine art is vital to their families because information technology keeps everyone engaged and happy and helps with the sometimes hard transitions of the day.

Art is naturally linked to creativity, an attribute that is increasingly existence touted as one of the near important factors for the success of individuals, organizations, and cultures.

The truth is that art is vital, if somewhat intangible, and that if children engage in easily-on art activities, they learn much better in all disciplines.

Why Kids Thrive When They Make Fine art

child building with cardboard and developing creativity

1. Art promotes creativity.

Creativity is the ability to recall outside the proverbial box, to string ii unrelated ideas together in a new way. Solutions to major problems and breakthroughs of all kinds are linked to creativity.

The ability to exist artistic is vital to the success of our children and the well-being of our earth. Now, more than than ever, as we confront incredible challenges such every bit racial discord, wars, global warming, and mass extinctions. Individuals, organizations, and governments seek innovative solutions every twenty-four hours.

According to the International Child Art Foundation, "Research indicates that a child who is exposed to the arts acquires a special ability to think creatively, be original, notice, innovate, and create intellectual property—cardinal attributes for private success and social prosperity in the xx-first century."

The earth needs more and better thinkers.

exploring foam paint and developing neural connections

ii. Art encourages neural connections.

Fine art is an activeness that tin utilise all the senses––sight, audio, touch, scent, and taste––depending on the action. Children's brain synapses fire abroad every bit they experiment and create by squishing pigment between their fingers, mixing colors & materials, or drawing from imagination or what they see in front of them.

3. Art builds fine motor skills.

Gripping a paintbrush, drawing dots and lines, mixing colors, cutting with scissors, controlling a glue stick or squeezing a mucilage bottle, kneading and rolling playdough, tearing paper—all of these tasks require increasing amounts of dexterity and coordination, yet they are so fun and rewarding that children want to do them over and over. As kids engage in art activities over fourth dimension, their fine motor skills better.

child scribbling as precursor to writing

4. Scribbling is a forerunner to writing.

Babies and toddlers begin past scribbling randomly, back and along. Simply the more they scribble, the more they are able to command the crayon and its movements beyond the newspaper.

Every bit children learn to command their scribbling, they make a wider variety of shapes, eventually making all the shapes necessary to write the letters of the alphabet—whatsoever alphabet.

5. Art develops problem-solving abilities.

Open up-concluded, procedure-oriented fine art is nothing but an countless opportunity for making choices, coming to conclusions, 2nd-guessing decisions, and evaluating results.

Children become more than comfortable with doubt and remain flexible thinkers, which is key for creativity and confidence. And the more feel they have with a variety of materials and techniques, the more than likely they are to endeavor new combinations and ideas.

6. Fine art helps kids sympathise themselves and their world.

Children blot incredible amounts of new data, and they need to procedure what they take learned in a prophylactic, reflective way. Fine art allows them to explore feelings and deal with both daily and pregnant events.

Art materials provide a safe outlet for emotions. Feelings and ideas tin can be reduced to a manageable size and manipulated equally desired. Movement, image, colour, line, and imagination all help children express themselves in a multidimensional way. This is a way that words may not exist able to do, or that may be more comfortable for them than words.

When we encourage our children to explore art, we encourage them to chief themselves, their bodies, and a diverseness of tools and techniques. We give them many ways to express themselves.

As parents and teachers, nosotros can offer an surroundings where it is safe to experiment and create. An environment where questions are encouraged and children take gratuitous access to the materials they demand and enjoy. We exercise this not to produce career artists just to heighten children who are confident and comfortable with their creativity in whatever form in takes.

seven. Fine art helps kids connect.

Art is an equalizer, helping create a common ground for children who don't know each other and who may or may not be interested in the same things. It can help people of all ages, races, abilities, and even languages engage in a shared (and generally mutually loved) activity.

The path to an art-filled life involves an open up heed, a few simple tools, a bit of preparation, and an exploratory approach. It's a path anyone tin can accept at a pace that suits yous and your family unit.

The Artful Parent book revised edition with art supplies

From The Artful Parent: Simple Ways to Fill Your Family's Life with Art & Creativity , © 2019 by Jean Van't Hul. Reprinted by arrangement with Roost Books, an imprint of Shambhala Publications Inc., Boston, MA.

Read more near The Artful Parent book or cheque out the more than than 297 reviews for the book (1st & 2nd editions) on Amazon (5-star cumulative).

The Artful Parent is available for purchase on Amazon, RoostBooks.com, and your favorite local bookstore.

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