Art and Creative Development

Part 1

There are various positive effects of art and creativity that early aged children may acquire for physical, cognitive and socio-emotional development. Regarding cognitive development, art helps children to develop observational skills required for science. For instance, when the children are told to mix two primary colours together to get a secondary colour, they are able to find out what happens. Secondly, art and creativity enhances language development. Through making of art or talking about it, the child is able to learn words for various colours, actions as well as shapes. A better example is when a child crumples a paper and starts calling it a ball. More so, another positive effect of art and creativity in cognitive development is decision making. This is acquired through the experience of making choices and decisions in the course of developing art ( Fox & Schirrmacher, 2011 ).

Art and creativity enhances physical development in children. When art activities are offered by the childcare providers, they support the children’s small and large muscle development as well as the coordination between the eye and the hand. Paintbrushes, markers and crayons use assists the child in practicing the fine motor control which they will need for writing in future. Art and creativity are also important for emotional development in children. As they participate in the art activities, children are able to gain self-confidence, experience success and feel proud of what they are doing. Besides, it helps children express strong emotions that they may have difficulty verbalizing. The art activities may provide the child and others with insight into the thoughts and feelings of the child. For instance, the use of paintings, drawings and clay models to re-enact the twin tower destruction in New York ( Gowan, 2015 ).

Furthermore, the art activities also improve the social development of the children. The children have the opportunity to learn and appreciate the cultural differences when they examine art from various artists. This makes them to understand the unique values and start perceiving things in a different way. The art activities enable children to learn diverse practices, views, negotiation as well as tangible proof of their work.

Part 2

Different Ways to Implement Technology Software in the Lives of Early Childhood Aged Children

Implementing technology in the lives of the early childhood aged children is important with regard to art and creativity. Combining art and technology can develop exciting ways to keep the children motivated and engage in the learning process throughout the world. As with technology, it is of significance that children should be provided with maximum support to learn the use of the features and tools of technology.

First, technology will replace the traditional art methods with digital drawing softwares. This will encourage the children to use multiple colours and tools, which were not available in the traditional methods helping them to gain more experience in the use of different art mediums. The computer graphics programs can provide children with avenues to creatively express themselves. Secondly, the drawing software could minimize the difficulties of painting that is encountered by children which will enable them to come up with any image of their choice and liking. The drawing software will contribute to the children creativity as a result of the frequent interaction of new artists. It will also heighten their imagination which is important for the growth of the children. 

Technology will necessitate capturing of children digital images for storage which can be retrieved in future to assess their progress in art. The other advantage of the digitally recorded art is the ability to share far and wide around the world. On the other hand, technology will provide digital books used for storytelling. This will enable the children to create their own illustration or narration in the software based on what they have heard or read in the digital books (Froebel, 2014).

Part 3

There are various community resources that parents and guardians ought to enrol their children to improve the skill of art and creativity. To start with, parents are required to enrol their children in art classes. They should sign their children for drawing, dancing, painting, acting and singing classes. This will provide an avenue for the children to improve their skills in art. Secondly, children should be taken to children’s museum where there is a lot of immersive art experience. Museums are known from the past to keep old impressive features and images which can be of great advantage to expose children in such environments since the museums can open their eyes to several ideas as well as relevant perspectives that are important to their eyes. The exposure can help them in critical and creative thinking. This will enhance their creativity and provide new insight for them to develop better things compared to what they saw. 

The parents should also accompany their children to the children’s theatre. The music, acting, stage set and costumes could be an inspiration to the children. It is an area where children can explore endless possibilities of what they can do and find an opportunity to learn more. The local library is another important community resource that parents should encourage their children to visit. In the library, they will read books or attend creative writing workshops which may expose the children to literary arts. Children’s library in the community will equip children to lifelong learning and literacy skills enabling them to be creative thinkers in future.

References

Fox, J. E., & Schirrmacher, R. (2011).  Art and creative development for young children . Cengage Learning.

Froebel, F. (2014). The education of man (W.N. Hailmann, Trans.). Clifton, NJ: A.M. Kelley. (Original work published 1826.) 

Gowan, J. C. (2015). Trance, art and creativity.  The Journal of Creative Behavior ,  9 (1), 1-11.