Blog Layout
The Benefits of Creative Play for Early Years
Shamima Fowzee • 25 August 2020
This is a subtitle for your new post
What is creative play?
Children are naturally curious and like to explore and experiment. Creative play is the most important type of play that is about experimenting with materials and music. We can encourage creative play by offering children a range of materials and play opportunities in dance, music, drawing, collage, painting, model-making, and much more. In creative play children must not be expected to "make something". It is not about producing things to display in the classroom or to be taken home.
In this article, we’ll look at what creative play is, explore some of its benefits in more detail, and dive into our expert tips on how you can encourage your child to engage in this type of play.
Why is creative play important to a child's development?
Creative play is an important part of childhood and child development. It is important to a child's development, both physically and mentally. Creative experiences help a child develop different skills and enable them to share their thoughts, feelings, and ideas.
1. Creative activities help children managing Emotions
Creative play promotes children's emotional expression. While playing, children may become happy with their creation like painting or drawing or may be frustrated with their unexpected result of creation, or maybe show their emotion while role-playing, modelling, or storytelling. So creative activities allow children to express and understand both positive and negative feelings and emotions. When it comes to managing the child's feelings or learning how to express different emotions, it also helps to build self-confidence.
2. Creative activities help children develop social skills
Activities like dancing, acting, creating models, gardening, or natural trails children work together. They cooperate with each other and also discuss ideas. These types of creative activities are a great way to help children built friendships and bonding as they understand and learn that other children or people are different from them.
3. Creative activities help children with physical development
Fitness is not the only physical benefit. Creative play also has physical benefits. Cutting with scissors, pasting, using musical instruments, drawing, colouring with crayons or colour pencils, and painting with paintbrushes all require fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and these ways children learn to control their movements. Other activities like drama, dancing, and movement in role-playing include gross motor skills.
4. Creative activities help a child's cognitive development
While making different craft activities like cutting and pasting or mixing different paints or making 3D models children develop many thinking skills. They ask themselves many tough questions: "do I have to put more glue on this piece to make it stick?" or "if I only have red and blue paint, but I want purple, how can I get purple?" As children discover the answers to these questions through trial and error, they will develop stronger problem-saving skills, develop their imagination, concentration, and critical thinking.
5. Creative activity build a child's communication skills
In creative activities, we should provide a lot of materials for children. When children engaged with chosen material in creative activities, they talk to themselves or to the adults and other children about what's happening, in turn, it built their vocabulary and develops imagination. This way it builds a child's communication skills.
6. Creative activities help a child's sensory development
When children involved in creative activities they develop observation skills, the ability to listen to instructions, explore different textures, recognize different smells, and gain an understanding of their world.
Examples of creative play
There are some activities that can be carried out at home and in early years setting with young children: singing and dancing, music and movement, role play, craft activities, cooking activity, messy play, cutting and pasting, recording and filming, recording and filming, musical instrument, junk modelling, small world play, sand and water play.
We should give proper opportunities to practice and develop children's creativity. We as parents should take out some time from our busy schedule for some creative play with our children. It will not only benefit the whole family but will create happy childhood memories that will last a lifetime for children.
Like this Article?
Share it on social.
The professional role and responsibilities of an early years educator regarding knowledge, skills and behaviours.
A guide to child development from birth to 5 years. Assuming no prior knowledge of the topic, it will take you through all the perspectives on the subject, covering physical, cognitive, moral, and behavioural aspects of a child's development.
This post will discuss the importance of talking and listening skills for children’s learning and development, the role of adults when talking and listening to children, factors that may enhance talking and listening activities, and a list of appropriate talking and listening games.
Grab My Newsletter
Be my bestie and get the latest on the greatest posts and special offers I share!
How can I thank you? Spread the word!
For everyone who is passionate about the importance of Early Years.
Welcome!
If you’re aiming to develop the quality of your early years provision and practice, improve authentic resources and child-led environments, develop effective early years planning and assessment, track systems, and become better at interpreting data to improve outcomes, you’ve found the support you need.