5 Steps to Enhance Creativity in Children
Medha Kedar Tonapi,
‘Health in your Mind’
Psychologist | Life Coach | Parent Coach |
Mindset Architect
Creativity! Aren’t children creative? Has anybody witnessed a non-creative child? I am sure not. Children are born creative. Most of the child’s energy goes to fuel his brain. The question is why we need to enhance the creativity of the child? If they are already so creative then why bother about it? Well, that is because creativity is like a muscle. It can be stretched, challenged, or enhanced. It works on “use it or lose it” basis.
Life experiences of a child can either enhance or diminish creativity.A child is born with several creative abilities. They need to be identified and enhanced to retain the creative skill of the child.
With increased automation, the routine or mundane work will be done by machines/ algorithms leaving only creative work to be done by humans.
5 Steps to Enhance Creativity in Children.
Keen observation: Understand a child, his skills and emotions. You can observe a child on different parameters like Physical, Social, Cognitive, Language and Emotional dimensions. You can take the help of a professional to guide you to understand these dimensions better.
Reading: An excellent habit of reading triggers the creative thoughts in mind. Reading opens up creative thinking and creative visualisation. Reading aloud activates different brain nerves than reading silently. So do encourage both.
Introduce any form of Music: Music elicits emotions in our mind, it sparkles up moods, memory and motor centres. Learning any form of music can unlock creativity. Musical experiences stimulate the mind and help enhance abilities in academics too. Help your child choose a favourite instrument or any form of vocal singing and learn it with professional help.
Exercise: The more you exercise, the more creative you become. There are several benefits of physical exercises. Help the child to choose his favourite form of exercise and stay at it.
Creative Play: Playing creative games and engaging in creative activities with your child is an exciting time and an enjoyable moment. Creative play activities should form a regular activity so that your child can master a number of challenging situations and scenarios. Creative mindset means helping your child become a complete personality that is affable, well-mannered, inventive, thoughtful, probing, inquisitive and expressive. Creative activities can help your child face any adverse situation with a sense of courage and assurance.
Here are some creative games and activities that will assist your child to become creative in life:
Jigsaw puzzles or Building Bocks: This is one of the most enduring games that can help your child solve complex problems. Jigsaw puzzles or building blocks offer a number of creative situations when your childis expected to solve intricate problems, riddles and challenges.
Hunt for the gold: Finding treasure is a game that can help your child get more creative and innovative. It involves finding a hidden treasure somewhere in a secret place after discovering a series of clues hidden in the area. It challenges your child to search for clues in a series of steps. By the end of the game, your chid would have solved a number of problems and challenges.
Make up your own stories: Creating an end to a story is a creative challenge when your child is expected to complete an incomplete story. This can help your child learn how to piece together a story, add parts to it and make the story complete with a logical end.
Creative dramatic play: One of the more meaningful ways of expressing oneself is through dramatic play (role play) and acting. Just pick up a story and enact it with your child. Children can express their innermost feelings and expressions with a play. It can help your children learn and understand the world and deal with a number of situations.
Leadership games: If you have many children at home, you can set up a creative game that involves the leader-child teach different actions and motions to other children. These can include making and imitating animal sounds, bird calls, and different sounds of nature or enacting a profession or an occupation (farmer, carpenter, hotelier, etc.). Once other children follow their leader, they will start to learn how they can be a part of a big team.
Who am I (dumb charades) - Guessing Games: Ask your child to act out a personality without uttering a single word, and you/ audience guess it.
Enabling the creativity in your child and practising these activities will eventually ensure a highly engaged relationship with your child.
Medha Kedar Tonapi,
‘Health in your Mind’
Psychotherapist, Life Coach,
Parent Coach.