Why is art important for child development: The Importance of Art in a Child’s Development

Опубликовано: January 1, 2023 в 11:50 pm

Автор: alexxlab

Категории: Child

The Importance of Art in a Child’s Development

Have you ever seen a child smooth cool finger paint over a sheet of paper with both hands, pulling her fingertips through the paint to make squiggles? Or observed a child coloring in bountiful spirals with crayons? If yes, then you have seen the concentration on these children’s faces, and the joyful expressions of art explored. You have witnessed creative art in process!

Most of us instinctually know that art is important for our children; we simply believe it’s important because we’ve seen our children deeply involved in art. But beyond what we feel and believe, there is much factual information about why art is important in our children’s development that is both interesting and helpful to know. Creating art expands a child’s ability to interact with the world around them, and provides a new set of skills for self-expression and communication. Not only does art help to develop the right side of the brain, it also cultivates important skills that benefit a child’s development. But art goes far beyond the tangible statistics measured by studies — it can become a pivotal mode of uninhibited self-expression and amazement for a child. Art matters the same way language matters — or the way breathing matters! It is a fundamental component of what makes us uniquely human.

Children Develop Life Skills through Art Activities

Art may seem like fun and games — and it is! — but you may not realize that your child is actually learning a lot through exploring the arts and doing art activities. Your children will gain useful life skills through art, so encourage them to get creative, and you will quickly see that your children are picking up these skills:

Communication Skills: When a child draws a picture, paints a portrait, or hangs buttons from a wobbly mobile, that child is beginning to communicate visually. A child may draw to document an actual experience like playing in the park, release feelings of joy by painting swirling colors, or share an emotionally charged experience like the passing of a loved one through art. Art goes beyond verbal language to communicate feelings that might not otherwise be expressed.

Problem-Solving Skills: When children explore art ideas, they are testing possibilities and working through challenges, much like a scientist who experiments and finds solutions. Should I use a shorter piece of yarn to balance my mobile? This tape isn’t holding — what should I try instead? How did I make brown — I thought I made orange? Art allows children to make their own assessments, while also teaching them that a problem may have more than one answer. Instead of following specific rules or directions, the child’s brain becomes engaged in the discovery of “how” and “why.” Even when experimenting or learning how to handle art materials effectively, children are solving challenges and coming up with new ways to handle unexpected outcomes.

Social & Emotional Skills: Art helps children come to terms with themselves and the control they have over their efforts. Through art, they also practice sharing and taking turns, as well as appreciating one another’s efforts. Art fosters positive mental health by allowing a child to show individual uniqueness as well as success and accomplishment, all part of a positive self-concept.

Fine Motor Skills: Fine motor skills enable a child do things like delicately turn the page of a book or fill in a sheet of paper with written words. Holding a paintbrush so that it will make the desired marks, snipping paper with scissors into definite shapes, drawing with a crayon, or squeezing glue from a bottle in a controlled manner all help develop a child’s fine motor skills and control of materials.

Self-Expression and Creativity

Children express themselves through art on a fundamental level. Sometimes their artwork is the manifestation of that expression, but more often, the physical process of creating is the expression. Picture the toddler who has a new baby sister busily pummeling his fists into Play-Doh; a six-year-old joyfully painting flowers with huge arm movements blending, reds and yellows; a ten year-old drawing a portrait of her grandmother who recently passed away. Creating art allows children to work through feelings and emotions, and referring to a finished piece of artwork helps a child talk about feelings in a new and meaningful way. Art also develops a child’s creativity. Rather than being told what to do, answers and directions come from the child. Art is an experience that requires freethinking, experimentation, and analysis — all part of creativity.

It is important, however, to separate the notion of “talent” from “creativity” — a child does not have to create a masterpiece to have a meaningful artistic experience. Art is a process, not a product. It’s tempting to want our children’s art to turn out “cookie-cutter perfect” to prove that they are successful and on track. It’s reassuring to know that we can relax! Where art is concerned, it is the process of creating — exploring, discovering, and experimenting — that has the greatest value. Through self-expression and creativity, children’s skills will develop naturally, and their ability to create will soar.

Source: MaryAnn F. Kohl

The art of creating: Why art is important for early childhood development

Kylie Rymanowicz, Michigan State University Extension -
January 22, 2015

Art exploration is not only fun and entertaining, but also educational. Here are some tips for growing your budding artist.

Support your child’s artistic journey with these tips. Photo credit: Lenchensmama | MSU Extension

Children are naturally curious. From the minute they gain control of their limbs, they work to put themselves out into the world to see how it all works. They explore, observe and imitate, trying to figure out how things operate and how to control themselves and their environments. This unrestricted exploration helps children form connections in their brain, it helps them learn—and it’s also fun.

Art is a natural activity to support this free play in children. The freedom to manipulate different materials in an organic and unstructured way allows for exploration and experimentation. These artistic endeavors and self-directed explorations are not only fun, but educational as well. Art allows youth to practice a wide range of skills that are useful not only for life, but also for learning.

Skills youth practice when participating in art activities include:

Fine motor skills. Grasping pencils, crayons, chalk and paintbrushes helps children develop their fine motor muscles. This development will help your child with writing, buttoning a coat and other tasks that require controlled movements.
Cognitive development. Art can help children learn and practice skills like patterning and cause and effect (i.e., “If I push very hard with a crayon the color is darker.”). They can also practice critical thinking skills by making a mental plan or picture of what they intend to create and following through on their plan.
Math skills. Children can learn, create and begin to understand concepts like size, shape, making comparisons, counting and spatial reasoning.
Language skills. As children describe and share their artwork, as well as their process, they develop language skills. You can encourage this development by actively listening and asking open-ended questions in return. It is also a great opportunity to learn new vocabulary words regarding their project (i.e., texture).

In addition to helping youth develop important skills, free expression is also good for overall health and well-being. Giving your child a creative outlet can help relieve stress and work through things happening in their lives. By encouraging artistic expression, you can help facilitate learning.

Want to support your child’s artistic journey? Here are a few tips from Michigan State University Extension:

Talk with your child about their work. It’s often hard to decipher a child’s drawings, even though the child knows exactly what it is. When we ask, “What is it?” we are saying that it should look like something we’d recognize. Instead, ask open-ended questions like “Tell me about your picture.” You can also describe specific things your child is doing by saying things such as, “You’re making short lines, I see you are using red, green and blue.” You can also describe the actions your child is taking or the materials they are using by saying things such as, “You are using a soft paintbrush, I noticed you are making small circles, you are using two crayons at the same time!”

Imitate your child. Instead of drawing your own picture, sit down with your child and imitate their actions. Make big scribbles, small lines or practice drawing circles. If your child is focused on what you are drawing or how “good” your picture is, they are less likely to be imaginative and creative on their own.
Provide choices. Gather a wide range of materials for your child to use like paint, colored pencils, chalk, play dough, markers, crayons, oil pastels, scissors and stamps. Mix it up by bringing in unexpected materials like Q-tips, dinosaurs, dry pasta or beans.
Support, don’t lead. Have you ever noticed that activities become much less fun when they are dictated by someone else? The same goes for kids—let them decide what materials they want to use and how and when to use them. Maybe they want to peel the paper off a crayon and use it lengthwise on the paper, instead of writing with the tip.
Keep it open-ended. Instead of sitting down with a specific plan or outcome in mind, let your child explore, experiment and use their imaginations. They might make a big mess or change their mind several times—this is all part of the creative process.
Focus on the process, not the product. Encouraging your child in the action of unstructured art helps them work with intrinsic motivation. It teaches them to express themselves freely, without worrying about what others think. If a lot of attention is given to the final product or we spend a lot of energy praising the end result, a child may be more likely to do things to get your approval instead of doing what they want to do. Part of focusing on the process involves encouraging effort; exploration and effort are more important than the end product. Notice their hard work!
Let it go. As long as a child is safe (i.e., not running with scissors), let them explore. They may spend the majority of the time sharpening colored pencils instead of actually drawing with them. Children learn through playing, exploring and trial and error. When we give them freedom to discover, they are learning to create and experiment in new and innovative ways.

Get your child creating and learning—all you’ll need is a paintbrush and an open mind.

For other articles on child development, parenting and more, visit the MSU Extension website.

This article was published by Michigan State University Extension. For more information, visit https://extension.msu.edu. To have a digest of information delivered straight to your email inbox, visit https://extension. msu.edu/newsletters. To contact an expert in your area, visit https://extension.msu.edu/experts, or call 888-MSUE4MI (888-678-3464).

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5 reasons to enroll your child in art studies for children

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Art history for children – why does a child need art?

Knowledge of the world and oneself in it
Development of taste and sense of aesthetics
Improving emotional intelligence
Development of useful skills
Academic success

Modern moms and dads are well versed in circles and sections. They know that music is needed for good hearing and a sense of rhythm, dancing for children develops flexibility, dexterity, improves the vestibular apparatus, and in a theater school a child will be relieved of blocks and clamps and will be taught not to be afraid of public speaking. But what will art history for children give a child, and is it really necessary in childhood?

5 reasons to study art with children

There is an opinion that art is for the elite, but in fact it is available to everyone. Moreover, educators and psychologists unanimously declare the importance of art history for kids.

Knowledge of the world and oneself in it

Art awakens in the soul high feelings, nobility, the desire for knowledge, self-improvement. Toddlers who not only attend an art school for children, but also study art, appreciate the world from the standpoint of beauty. They learn to preserve beauty, nature, treat the feelings of another person more humanely and more carefully. They feel like they are part of a big world and strive to preserve and improve this world.

Development of taste and sense of aesthetics

Acquaintance with great works from the world of music, painting, literature sets the child on a new wave, instills in him a good taste in everything. He will not be satisfied with low-grade creative products, and he himself will strive to do everything qualitatively and well.

Improving emotional intelligence

What do you feel when you look at the picture? What emotions does this melody evoke in you? – such questions are useful for the development of a child’s emotional intelligence and his ability to understand himself. Through images and sounds, it is easier for a small person to feel his inner state, because the language of images and emotions is the language that children speak from birth.

You can invite a young art historian to reflect on the state of the artist or composer when he wrote his masterpiece. This teaches to evaluate the emotional background of another person through external manifestations.

Development of useful skills

By studying art, the child stimulates speech development, gets acquainted with new concepts and words, learns new phenomena. He learns to analyze and compare, develops creative vision, intelligence. Art teaches the child to highlight the most important, to correctly compose compositions. Later, it will be easier for such children to present their ideas to the public, to properly build a performance, exhibition, communication with the audience.

Academic success

An interesting experiment was conducted in one of the schools in the state of Vermont in the USA. Student achievement at the school was one of the worst in the state. Mathematics was especially not given to children. The management made an unusual decision: to combine the lessons of art history with mathematics. The students studied paintings, mastered mathematical concepts using the example of works of art. Such lessons have borne fruit, and academic performance has increased. There is nothing surprising in this, because the exact sciences are closely connected with art in terms of concepts and algorithms. By learning one, the child simultaneously masters the other. It turns out a complex development.

Do you want art to become an element of the comprehensive development of the child? Welcome to the Imena Production Child Development Center for art history classes for children! Our teachers will introduce your child to the world masterpieces of artists and sculptors and instill in children a love for art, creativity, native history.

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Drawing lessons for children – is it necessary? How does art affect a child’s development?

Creativity

The school curriculum often encourages children to strive to study the exact and natural sciences and the role of art in the development of the child is clearly underestimated, although children, in general, from an early age begin to get involved in drawing, music, dance and theater.

Through art, the child explores the world around him, making the process not only educational, but also very fun. In this way, a wide range of skills are formed that are useful not only for life, but also for learning.

The following are the main benefits in the development of the child through the arts.

Motor skills

Drawing, as one of the art forms, perfectly develops fine motor skills in children from early childhood. This development helps children in tasks that require controlled movements, such as writing

Cognitive skills

Visual arts help practice cause-and-effect skills (if we add yellow to blue, we get green).

The skill of critical thinking is also formed when a child comes up with the plot of a picture in advance, transferring it to paper, and then describing the finished work. Or he talks about the topic of another painting, sharing his feelings and emotions that it evokes, interpreting, criticizing and drawing conclusions.

Art helps to stimulate the process of thinking, to be more spontaneous, and to find non-standard ways of solving problems.

Math skills

Children can develop concepts such as size, shape, comparison, counting and space.

Visual Skills

Nowadays, children are beginning to perceive visual information better, as even a toddler who cannot speak can already easily manage applications on a smartphone, guided by the characters on the screen.

The development of visual skills also helps to see the beauty of the world around us and the diversity of nature

Cultural awareness

Any kind of art is a reflection of the reality that surrounds us. Understanding and interpreting different forms of art helps children expand their horizons and learn about the world from different perspectives.

Improved academic performance

There is a link between art and other achievements. Children who are interested in this field are more likely to be more successful in academic achievement than children who are not interested in the field of art.

Summing up, we can confidently say that drawing for children is a very important and indispensable stage of development, and the task of parents is to support and strengthen the love of creativity and self-expression in young creators.

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