Promoting Your Child's Creativity 

The 3-year-old girl gets out of the tub and reflectively exclaims, “Look, I’m barefoot all over!” Two-year-old Jerry scoots under a box, then sticks his head out, pretending to be a turtle. Jeff, at 34 months, had several mosquito bites on his arm. His mother asks him if he wants her to put some medicine on the bites to make them feel better. He replies, “I think a brownie in my mouth would make them feel pretty good.” These are examples of what everyone would agree is creativity. Furthermore, these are not sentences or behaviors that are taught. Numerous examples on a worldwide basis indicate that at least three commonly regarded factors of creativity are naturally demonstrated in childhood:
1.) imaginative thinking skills, seen when children explore problems in new ways or create new patterns with objects or situations;
2.) adventuresome personality: young children, as a group, seem to seek new experiences and be willing to take more risks than older children (and certainly adults); and ...
3.) intrinsic motivation: young children enjoy tasks because of the challenge or other properties of the activities themselves. By middle-school age, however, very few children demonstrate these types of creative thinking. Why is that so? One noted psychologist, Howard Gardner, suggests that while preschool children are allowed to be original, playful and uninhibited, older children become more restricted in their creative expression as they are told there is a right and wrong way to do most everything. When problems come with just one correct answer, and rules become the cornerstone of proper behavior, creativity takes a back seat. But teachers don’t necessarily dislike creativity, and society doesn’t punish creativity when the ideas are regarded as valuable or appropriate. This leads us to the fourth factor that is seen as affecting creativity—creative environment: children are more likely to evidence creative thinking and behavior when others model creativity or are openly supportive of its

Here is where you as a parent can have an impact in keeping your child’s glow of creativity alive. There is no question that rules are important; even in kindergarten children who don’t take turns, share or pay attention may well be singled out as problem children. But as parents you need to balance your emphasis on social rules with visible support for creative thought and behavior.

Researchers note that creativity is promoted when nonconformity and independence are valued. For some individuals, the term “nonconformity” is equated with “noncompliance” and being independent is the same as being asocial. If your child is under four, the chances are that he is a nonconformist, partly because he does not know all the rules. Such is expected and tolerated. Even acting independently is accepted. But in classroom groups, even beginning in preschool, adherence to group standards of conduct is taught and stressed.

To maintain your child’s natural creative orientation, you may need to consciously insure that you provide emotional and intellectual support for novel ideas and behavior. Furthermore, when something your child does or says is creative but not social or age-appropriate, you can bring up other possibilities that would be appropriate and note the value of that idea or product. In fact, the more informational associations you can help your child attain, the more you are assisting the likelihood that creative thinking will prosper.

For parents of older children, the suggestions that researchers have for promoting creativity harken back to the preschooler-adult type of relationship. For instance, the researcher suggest that curiosity and playfulness should be encouraged and the child should be granted freedom to explore possibilities independently. If we can clearly differentiate for ourselves and successfully communicate to our children that while appropriateness of speech content and behavior is important, creative ideas continue to be valuable, then the observed decrease in creative productivity might be reversed. Let’s clarify for our school-age children that we do not believe that creativity per se is unacceptable. Such may be what they think.

One final characteristic noted about creative individuals is worth mentioning: persistence: those who display creativity often stick with an idea or problem well beyond at time when others get frustrated and quit. To assist your child to be more persistent, focus on conveying two attitudes: First., reflect the belief that no problem is inherently difficult. With further information and/or a change in strategy, perspective or persistence, any problem can be solved. Secondly, reinforce the notion that “failure” is a term related to situations, not people. Failure reflects a temporary state of affairs and only means that another approach or more information and practice is needed.

Parents and teachers can and do have an impact on children’s development of creativity. In fact, creativity may be more readily influenced than other personality characteristics. In one study, identical twins were noted to score very similarly on tests of intelligence but to score no more alike on tests of creativity than fraternal twins. Such results suggest that creativity may be more influenced by environmental rather than genetic factors.

In sum, creativity is promoted through the maintenance of a playful, joking atmosphere that allows and supports the unconventional but distinguishes and elaborates on what is appropriate and useful. It develops when modeling of differential strategies is used. And finally, it more likely flourishes when adults convey the idea that problems are solvable.