Art Making a Difference in the Lives of Children

The benefits of fine art for kids are many and include problem-solving abilities, creativity, literacy, fine & gross motor skills, connection, and understanding.

Updated Jan 2022

Anybody says art and inventiveness are of import, but are yous wondering what the actual art benefits for kids are ?

Today I'one thousand sharing some of the many art benefits for kids as well equally a quote well-nigh children's fine art that I just love.

Merely one of the many benefits of fine art…

The Benefits of Art for Kids

Excerpted from The Artful Parent: Simple Means to Fill Your Family'southward Life with Art & Creativity , © 2021 by Jean Van't Hul. Reprinted by arrangement with Roost Books , an imprint of Shambhala Publications Inc., Boston, MA.

Educators tell us that art encourages fine motor skills, neural development, and problem-solving abilities and that it tin be used finer to teach and sympathise other cardinal subjects such as reading, writing, math, and science.

Therapists tell us that fine art is valuable because it allows children to process their globe, to deal with sometimes scary emotions in a condom way, and considering it gives them critical sensory input.

Artists tell u.s. that fine art is important for its own sake—every bit a source of beauty and expression, as well as merely for the process of creating.

Kids tell us that fine art is fun, an activity they enjoy.

Parents tell us that fine art is vital to their families because it keeps everyone engaged and happy and helps with the sometimes difficult transitions of the day.

Fine art is naturally linked to creativity, an attribute that is increasingly being touted equally one of the most of import factors for the success of individuals, organizations, and cultures.

The truth is that art is vital, if somewhat intangible, and that if children engage in hands-on fine art activities, they larn much better in all disciplines.

Why Kids Thrive When They Make Fine art

child building with cardboard and developing creativity

ane. Art promotes inventiveness.

Creativity is the power to think exterior the proverbial box, to string two unrelated ideas together in a new way. Solutions to major problems and breakthroughs of all kinds are linked to creativity.

The ability to exist artistic is vital to the success of our children and the well-beingness of our earth. At present, more than than ever, equally we face incredible challenges such as racial discord, wars, global warming, and mass extinctions. Individuals, organizations, and governments seek innovative solutions every twenty-four hour period.

Co-ordinate to the International Child Art Foundation, "Research indicates that a child who is exposed to the arts acquires a special ability to think creatively, be original, observe, innovate, and create intellectual property—key attributes for individual success and social prosperity in the twenty-kickoff century."

The world needs more and better thinkers.

exploring foam paint and developing neural connections

two. Art encourages neural connections.

Fine art is an action that can employ all the senses––sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste––depending on the action. Children's brain synapses fire abroad every bit they experiment and create by squishing paint between their fingers, mixing colors & materials, or cartoon from imagination or what they see in front of them.

iii. Art builds fine motor skills.

Gripping a paintbrush, drawing dots and lines, mixing colors, cutting with scissors, decision-making a glue stick or squeezing a gum bottle, kneading and rolling playdough, vehement paper—all of these tasks require increasing amounts of dexterity and coordination, yet they are and so fun and rewarding that children desire to practice them over and over. As kids engage in fine art activities over time, their fine motor skills improve.

child scribbling as precursor to writing

4. Scribbling is a forerunner to writing.

Babies and toddlers begin by scribbling randomly, dorsum and forth. Merely the more they scribble, the more they are able to command the crayon and its movements across the paper.

Equally children acquire to command their scribbling, they make a wider multifariousness of shapes, eventually making all the shapes necessary to write the messages of the alphabet—any alphabet.

five. Art develops problem-solving abilities.

Open-ended, procedure-oriented fine art is zilch but an endless opportunity for making choices, coming to conclusions, second-guessing decisions, and evaluating results.

Children become more comfy with uncertainty and remain flexible thinkers, which is key for creativity and conviction. And the more feel they have with a diverseness of materials and techniques, the more probable they are to try new combinations and ideas.

6. Art helps kids sympathise themselves and their world.

Children absorb incredible amounts of new information, and they need to process what they have learned in a rubber, reflective way. Fine art allows them to explore feelings and bargain with both daily and pregnant events.

Art materials provide a condom outlet for emotions. Feelings and ideas can exist reduced to a manageable size and manipulated as desired. Motility, paradigm, colour, line, and imagination all help children limited themselves in a multidimensional style. This is a mode that words may not be able to do, or that may exist more than comfortable for them than words.

When nosotros encourage our children to explore fine art, we encourage them to master themselves, their bodies, and a variety of tools and techniques. We requite them many ways to limited themselves.

Every bit parents and teachers, nosotros tin offer an surround where it is rubber to experiment and create. An environment where questions are encouraged and children have gratis access to the materials they need and enjoy. We do this non to produce career artists but to enhance children who are confident and comfortable with their creativity in whatever course in takes.

seven. Fine art helps kids connect.

Art is an equalizer, helping create a mutual ground for children who don't know each other and who may or may non be interested in the aforementioned things. It tin help people of all ages, races, abilities, and fifty-fifty languages engage in a shared (and generally mutually loved) activity.

The path to an art-filled life involves an open up mind, a few simple tools, a bit of preparation, and an exploratory approach. Information technology's a path anyone can take at a pace that suits you and your family.

The Artful Parent book revised edition with art supplies

From The Aesthetic Parent: Elementary Ways to Fill Your Family's Life with Art & Inventiveness , © 2019 by Jean Van't Hul. Reprinted by arrangement with Roost Books, an imprint of Shambhala Publications Inc., Boston, MA.

Read more most The Artful Parent book or check out the more than 297 reviews for the volume (1st & 2nd editions) on Amazon (5-star cumulative).

The Artful Parent is available for purchase on Amazon, RoostBooks.com, and your favorite local bookstore.

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Art Making a Difference in the Lives of Children

The Benefits of Art for Kids