18 Jan How Creative Thinking Skills Can Benefit Your Child
A creative thinker is someone who can come up with new ideas, think in original ways, and explore uncharted territory. Creative thinkers look at things from different perspectives and ask questions that others may not even think about. Your child may already be showing signs of being a creative thinker through his or her drawings or other artwork, but how can you encourage this skill set even more?
What Is Creative Thinking
Creative thinking is the ability to make connections between seemingly unrelated ideas and concepts. It’s also the process of creating new ideas or solutions by combining existing ones. If you’re thinking about your child’s education, this definition might conjure images of arts-focused schools or Montessori classrooms where students spend most of their time making art projects and learning how to play instruments. While there’s some overlap between creative thinking skills and artistic endeavours like those mentioned above, there are many other ways in which these two areas can benefit one another—and not just academically.
Why Creative Thinking Is Important for Your Child
Creative thinking skills are important for problem-solving, innovation, and decision- making. Creative thinkers think outside of the box and discover new things about themselves and the world around them. The process of self-expression is essential in any creative act. Children benefit from creative experiences to help them express and cope with their emotions. A child’s creative activity can help teachers and parents alike understand what the child is thinking or feeling. Therefore, this empowers us to recognise and celebrate the uniqueness and diversity of every child and provide excellent opportunities to personalise our teaching methods.
Benefits of Creative Thinking Skills for Your Child
Here are four ways on how creative thinking skills can benefit your child:
1. Creative thinking skills boost learning opportunities
One of the most obvious benefits of creative thinking is that it helps children become better learners. Children who have developed their creative thinking abilities process information more effectively and efficiently, which enables them to learn new things faster. They’ll also be more likely to remember what they’ve learned because their brains have already figured out how to translate this new information into something that matters to them.
2. Creative thinking skills help your child be more successful in life
In addition to being able to recall facts and figures (which are useful in exams), kids who possess strong creative thinking skills tend to show leadership qualities and independence on the job or in other areas where such qualities are valued by employers or colleagues alike! As parents, you can nurture this skill for your child by developing and testing theories, experimenting, and attempting to comprehend how the world works. Encourage children to investigate, ask questions, test their theories, think critically about the results, and consider changes or things they could do differently.
3. Creative thinking skills develop greater confidence levels
A high confidence level is something we all want our children to grow up feeling. Allowing your child to express himself creatively takes a lot of patience and motivation. Appreciating his work and thought process enables him to develop a sense of worth. Art helps boost self-confidence in children when they feel good while creating. Children who feel free to experiment and make mistakes are more likely to invent new ways of thinking, which can extend far beyond the craft room.
4. Creative thinking skills allows your child to be more emotionally resilient
Creativity thinking increases emotional intelligence, which aids children in dealing with stressful situations. Creative activities help children develop a variety of skills that they can apply in other areas of their lives, making them feel more confident and connected to others. Whether it’s building with LEGOs, learning about gardening science, or telling stories with maths, there’s an activity for every type of learner, topic or interest, grade level, and material or environment available.
By encouraging your children to think creatively, you are helping them make connections between ideas and come up with solutions to problems. Children with good creative thinking skills also tend to be more successful in school because they learn new information more easily than those who do not. Remember, your child’s goal is not to find one correct answer and be done with it. True innovation emerges from the iterative process of trying something, determining why it worked or did not work, and learning what to do differently or better next time. This process fosters problem-solving, collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking abilities in your child.
Creative thinking is an essential life skill, and it’s not just for artists. It allows your child to develop a positive outlook towards life that translates into success in school, at work, and even in relationships with others. After all, isn’t it better to be able to think outside of the box than become trapped by traditional thinking?
Our modular Impression ARTSTM programme at NASCANS enables your child to develop creative and inventive thinking skills. Students gain hands-on experience and art techniques as they create individual masterpieces and collaborate to create a larger art mural!