Kids and Art: How Art Helps Brain Development

Art and creativity are closely linked and they help kids develop into successful, organised and cultured individuals. The reality is that art is crucial (even though often intangible) and children can learn a lot of things while colouring, cutting paper, modelling clay or designing buildings with building blocks. The things they learn while doing art can make them much better achievers in all disciplines, often reflected in their IQ test scores.

Here are just some of the reasons why you need to encourage your kids to engage in creating art.

Language Development

Young kids will get a lot of opportunities to learn words for colours, shapes, actions and objects when talking or creating art. Kids as young as one can engage in simple activities like scribbling on a piece of paper and naming colours or crumpling it up and calling it a ball. Once they start elementary school, children can be encouraged to discuss their art and name the emotions they feel when looking at or creating their little masterpieces. There are different types of art they will discuss and thus learn many new words.

Learning Skills

There’s a big correlation between art and academic achievements. Kids and young people who often enjoy and participate in creating art are more likely to be recognised for their achievements at school and more likely to participate in maths and science fairs. They are also more likely to win awards for writing than those kids who have no art participation experiences.

Motor Skills

Making art involves a lot of motions – holding a brush, going up and down with a crayon, manipulating clay – and all of them are essential to the development of fine motor skills. Kids around the age of three are expected to draw a circle and cut shapes with safety scissors. Kids aged four can draw squares and cut straight lines. Older kids can play with various fun STEM teaching tools in school and learn about the third dimension while creating art. If you encourage them to make art, they will hit these developmental milestones in time and work on the skills they need for writing, doing geometry and achieving good results at school.

Imagination Benefits

In order to develop a good sense of innovation (which will be very useful in their future academic and career pursuits), kids need to be encouraged to express themselves with art. Thinking, inventive and risk-taking people are usually what pushes humankind forward. And art is the first thing little kids can use to make their world better and more colourful!

Whilst it’s good to let your little ones imaginations run wild, it’s also good to give them some basic tools and learning so that they can put these to good use in their own creative projects. Online art classes and art tutorials are a fantastic way to learn artistic techniques or to help inspire new ways of looking at things.

Decision Making

Pursuing art can be a great way to boost kids’ critical-thinking skills. During the course of creating art, kids need to make plenty of executive decisions which can carry over into other parts of their lives. Exploring new ideas, experimenting and trying new paths is what gives the creativity a chance to grow and develop.

Problem-Solving Skills

When creating art, no matter what kind of art, kids need to make a lot of decisions, draw conclusions, adjust their approach and analyse the results. Kids who do art are much more comfortable with dilemmas and tend to be more flexible thinkers. With more experimenting with techniques and materials, they are more likely to try new ideas and combinations and think outside the box.

World Understanding

While kids have a lot of limitations, they are also able to absorb huge amounts of information. In order to process that information, they require a safe space and a safe way to reflect, that’s where art comes in. Art allows them to deal with new experiences they have every day and explore their emotions. And the best thing is that art is a completely safe and healthy way to vent and show feelings and ideas. While exploring movement, image, line, colour and ideas, kids will start to understand more things about themselves and the world that surrounds them.

Connecting With Other Kids

Art is the universal language for all kids, even those who don’t know each other or might not share that many common interests. Kids of all ages, races, religions, languages and abilities can communicate and connect through this universally-loved activity.

Art is not only fun for kids, but it also comes with many benefits for their brain development. It can boost everything from their motor skills to their emotional intelligence, so grab some fun art toys and encourage your little ones to let their imagination fly high!


Author Bio

Diana Smith is a full time mom of two beautiful girls interested in business and marketing related topics.

In her free time she enjoys exercising and preparing healthy meals for her family.

Written By
More from Diana Smith
How To Travel In The Time Of Coronavirus
The current pandemic has affected our lives in so many ways. Unfortunately,...
Read More
Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *