How to Nurture Your Child to Be Creative #7 Make Them Feel Safe

The emotional stability of the world we create for children will have a huge effect on how creative they are. Long-standing research reveals children need emotional stability before they begin to express themselves.

In his classic work, psychologist Abraham Maslow set out what is termed as a Hierarchy of Needs. His theory is generally illustrated as a pyramid, setting out the different kinds of needs people must meet before they can move up to the next level. At the very bottom, we must meet our physical needs – to be warm, fed and safe. Moving up the pyramid, we then have to meet our basic psychological needs – to be loved, and have a sense of belonging and to feel confident. Only when all of these needs are met, according to Maslow, can we begin to be creative, spontaneous and solve problems.

Making sure children are warm, fed, safe and loved is something that most parents do as a matter of course. But by doing these things, and by paying careful attention to your child when they seem anxious and doing your best to reassure them that they are safe and protected, you are instinctively playing a huge part in nurturing their creativity!

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How to Nurture Your Child to Be Creative #6 Respect Their Privacy

Just as the thought of showing someone a piece of creative writing, or sharing an unusual idea might make us a little nervous; sharing new ideas and thoughts can feel a little frightening for children too. This is especially true in their early years when they are still very much dependent on the approval of adults around them.

While they are working on something new, children need time and private space where they can make mistakes and try new things without any risk of their efforts being judged, until they are ready to show you.  And when they do, it is important how you react.

At its heart, creativity of any kind is an intensely personal expression. It reveals that this is something the person has spent time and energy thinking about, that this is something important for them. Inevitably, it is an expression of the effort, talent and ability that went into it. If you want to encourage creativity, it is important that a child is given private time and space to play and experiment with their expression, without the risk of ridicule or disinterested dismissal.

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How to Nurture Your Child to Be Creative #5 Praise the Process, Not the Results

If your child runs to you proudly presenting a new painting or model they’ve made, it’s any parent’s natural instinct to offer praise. However, over-enthusiastic praise can be unhelpful. Studies carried out by psychologist Professor Wulf-Uwe Meyer from the University of Bielefeld, Germany, reveal that from a very young age children are very cynical about whether praise is genuine or not. His studies found that by the time they reach primary school, children can become cynical to the point where they no longer really believe any praise and therefore truly genuine appreciation begins to lose its value.

So, it is vital to focus on praising the creative process rather than the creative product. Well respected studies by psychologist Dr. Carol Dweck, author of Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, suggest that we should take care to praise the effort and the process of doing the work, rather than commenting on the results. This will help your child understand that their creative work will become better with practise. “For example, tell them you really love the colours they chose in this painting, or that you know how hard they worked on their guitar practice to make that song sound so beautiful,” says Dweck. Dweck also revealed that if you focus on praising the process in a sensitive yet honest way, your child is far more likely to feel confident in the creative work they do, to recover (more quickly) from setbacks and better enjoy what they are doing. “Ultimately the way you praise doesn’t just affect how confident your child is,” says Dweck, “but also how intelligent or skilled they will become.”

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How to Nurture Your Child to Be Creative #4 Don't Help Too Much

It is important to balance the need to teach with the need sometimes to step back and let children simply get on with what they are doing. There are times when they do need to be taught a technical skill so they can broaden their skills and try new things, for example, how to use safety scissors to cut paper. But the key crime of parents in stifling creativity is to step in and interfere when it is not necessary.

You might feel frustrated that your child can’t quite get the hang of painting in separate colours yet and insists on mixing all the paints into the same sludgy brown shade. But aside from the fact that is it their picture and not yours, they learn from mixing up those colours; that blue + yellow = green; green + red = brown, even if the end of the experimental splattering is the inevitable mossy brown smudge all over the page.

Children need to experiment. And sometimes when they do it ‘wrong,’ they come up with things that are surprising, delightful and truly inventive. Do you know? Chips, Frisbees and Post-It notes were created as the result of ‘mistakes.’ Sometimes getting things wrong can lead to brilliant inventions. So, don’t help your child too much.

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How to Nurture Your Child to Be Creative #3 Don't Impose Unnecessary Rules

We all need some rules of course. Rules help to keep children safe and teach them how to behave in a considerate and thoughtful way. Many parents, however, instinctively impose rules on children which aren’t strictly necessary, and when it comes to fostering creativity, it is vital to carefully consider rules before you impose them.

For example, a classic rule which stifles children’s creativity is that they must colour in between the lines. It is a good rule if you’re trying to teach fine motor skills and encourage your child to follow instructions carefully, but when it comes to encouraging them to express themselves and ‘think outside the box,’ it quite literally reins in their natural creativity. Sometimes the rules we set can inadvertently impose our judgments on whether a creative effort is ‘good’ or not. At other times, we impose unnecessary limits which restrict a child from really letting go and experimenting freely with the new materials and inventive techniques. Rules are good (“Don’t play on the road”) but don’t impose unnecessary rules (“The sky must be coloured in blue”).

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How to Nurture Your Child to Be Creative #2 Let Them Decide Where to Play

When I think of where parents normally carry out creative activities with their children, the usual choice is to let them sit up at the table. For some activities this is sensible, it’s difficult to glue, for example, if you are on the floor. But, if you think about where your child chooses to play most of the time, you quickly realize that preschool children often prefer to play on the floor rather than at the table (At least, I do). Not only is it more comfortable for them, but younger babies especially develop muscles and motor skills which help them to look up, roll and sit with improved posture when they are allowed to play on the floor.

Your child may often prefer to play outside too. Obviously this does depend on the whether to some extent, but there’s no doubt that the sights, sounds, smells and textures of the natural world provide wonderful stimuli to encourage creativity in your child.

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How to Nurture Your Child to Be Creative #1 Let Them Lead the Play

Latest research suggests that although it’s good for us to provide interesting objects and materials for children to play with, and to be on hand to help and play with your child, your child will be happier and more creative if you allow time for unstructured play – in other words, you sometimes need to take a step back and let your child decide what they want to do.

Your child will need access to resources to encourage play and so it is a good idea to set out several different toys and materials (paper plates, paints, glitter, Lego, etc.) which they can use as and when they wish during their playtime. Because they have initiated the play, they will be more actively engaged in whatever activity they are doing and as a result, they will learn more from it.

Allowing your child to lead their own play is not the easy option. Painting and crafts can certainly be messy and after all your careful preparation you may find you child is more interested in playing with teddy bears. This can be very frustrating, however, remember that your child is going to be more creative if they are making more choices about how they use the resources they’re provided with.

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