Inventive Skills
In today’s times, innovation is a highly valued skill, whether it is in kids or adults. Society needs innovative people who can create breakthrough innovations and not simply follow directions. Creation of art allows kids to express themselves freely, thereby developing their sense of innovation. To foster innovation, parents should cover the walls of the homes with creative work done by their kids. Also, parents should limit the TV time of kids and insist they spend more time honing their creative skills.
Decision Making Skills
To promote social and cognitive development in kids, it is important that they start believing in their decision-making skills, something which will be valuable for the rest of their life. There are various ways in which art can be used for improving decision making skills. For example, kids should be given a choice to select the materials or colors they want to use for creating art. Likewise, they should also be given the freedom to choose their preferred art activity. There should be minimum guidance by adults while creating art as any interference prevents the development of creativity and decision making skills in kids.
Visual Learning Skill
Activities like drawing, sculpting, painting and beading help immensely in the development of visual learning skills. For example, drawing lessons can involve “travelling” to a new country or a new planet, which can help a great deal in improving visual learning. Or a painting lesson may involve painting musical instruments and fruits, which can help kids in identifying different objects.
Perseverance
Creating pieces of art on a consistent basis involves patience and perseverance. Children realize that as they spend more time on their art, they are able to get better at it. Today’s world demands a lot of perseverance in order to succeed. And art provides the necessary exposure to perseverance right at a young age.
Focus
One of the key skills that develops through art is the ability to focus. For example, an activity like knitting or beading involves tremendous amount of concentration. Likewise, creation of art like a drawing requires paying close attention to details. Art also helps in improving memory and retention power in kids.
Fine Motor Skills
Making art involves several motions, which are immensely beneficial for developing fine motor skills in young kids. For example use of tracing paper and a pencil for tracing lines helps in the development of finger muscles as well as improves hand-eye coordination. Likewise, creating clay sculptures can go a long way in improving fine motor skills.
Language Skills
When making art, kids get an opportunity to learn new words for different shapes, colors or actions. Adults can make these activities more meaningful by asking kids to talk about their piece of art. Or they can make the child narrate their experience while they are creating art as it will help them communicate their thought process. Parents can also involve kids in simple activities, such as crumpling up paper and identifying the piece as a “ball.”
Cultural Awareness
In today’s globalized world, we are living in a diverse society. Art can be a very useful tool in making the kids aware of different cultures, thereby preparing them for future. For instance, drawing or fancy dress competitions, which revolve around particular festivals help kids from all communities get exposure to those festivals. Likewise, art competitions can be organized with the sole objective or promoting diversity.
Art Therapy
Art therapy can be useful in helping kids cope with a variety of issues like speech/language/behavioral disorders, learning disabilities and other such issues, which are an obstacle to learning. Art therapy also involves coming up with personalized development programs based on specific problems faced by children.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, art can help in a child’s development in various ways. The important thing is to ensure that kids value art and see it is an interesting activity, akin to watching TV or playing online games. Also, kids should be given the right environment to express their creative self without any obstructions. So let your child take the first step to express and create their own world through drawings.