How creativity develops in children: activity suggestions to better support your child

Activity suggestions to better support your child

Creativity is considered one of the executive functions, which are a set of so-called high-level cognitive processes directly tied to the developmental growth of the brain's prefrontal cortex. As a result, it evolves as the brain matures, emerging in the first year of life and becoming more complex over time and with the child's experiences. So how can you grow a child's ability to create, organize, plan and be cognitively flexible? Here is a short list of situations to offer your child regularly to support the development of their executive functions.

For children aged 0 to 2:

• Offer different textures to explore (sand, water, dry pasta, modelling clay, kinetic sand, water beads) while making sure it is safe and supervised
• Offer materials for making marks (paper, paint, pencils) and let them use them however they like
• Set out different accessories (hats, mittens, scarves) and place your child in front of a mirror to explore them however they wish
• Play different styles of music
• Tell stories

For children aged 3 and up:

• Offer props and characters so they can create their own scenarios
• Offer costumes they can use in their own way
• Let them handle different musical instruments
• Read books from different genres (stories, poems, plays)
• Offer active-play equipment (balls, sticks, ropes, cones, etc.) so they can set up their own obstacle courses or sports activities

Finally, keep in mind that ideally, no matter what materials and situations we offer children, the key is to give them time to do things on their own. Letting them get bored allows their creativity to blossom!

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