Creative Skills

Creativity is about more than choosing the colors for a painting or drawing. It is a way of thinking, problem solving and applying knowledge as well.

Many people assume that creativity is something children are born with and either do or do not have. But in reality, creativity is more skill than inborn talent, and it is a skill parents can help their kids develop.

Creativity is about more than choosing the colors for a painting or drawing. It is a way of thinking, problem solving and applying knowledge as well. From their earliest days, babies respond to contrasts, colors, sounds, and movements.

How they integrate these various experiences will influence their growth and development across many areas, including creativity. In this way, creativity is ageless and timeless. And more importantly, creativity can be acquired, and fostered.

Creative play and activities have a central role in children’s overall learning and development. Kids typically enjoy expressing ideas and exploring their world through songs, dress-ups, art materials, language and movement.

At this age, children are in a scribbling stage. Their scribbles are usually random, disordered and uncontrolled. Scribbles are more a product of physical activity, made by movement of the shoulders rather than elbows or wrists, which children do not have full control over yet. These young scribblers will typically try holding their crayon in different ways and do not often associate their movements with lines appearing on paper. Their attention spans are short, and they only scribble for one or two minutes at a time. Activities that can help in your 2 year old’s creative skill development:

• Teach your child the repetition of patterns. Make the sound ‘vrooom vrooom’ to imitate the sound a car makes, or move both your hands in a rhythmic pattern as if playing an instrument such as the drums.
• Play some music and dance with your child while holding his hands. While dancing, create as many movements as possible.
• Name and describe items in a picture and then encourage your child to do it independently. The idea is to encourage him to describe what he sees.
• Provide opportunities to explore safe and appropriate visual arts, such as finger painting, drawing in sand and molding clay.

When you read a story to your child change the characters’ voices and make gestures to display emotions and feelings.