CREATIVITY AND IMAGINATION ARE HIGH LEVEL SKILLS IN THE BRAIN

Studies show that the brain is not idle during daydreaming. While imagining, the brain is very active. 

I often talk and write very passionately about how incredibly important it is that young children have opportunities to play. The development of imagination and creative thought is one of the reasons I feel so strongly about play.

Creativity and imagination are high level skills in the brain. It is critical that we provide opportunities for all of our young children to develop these valuable skills. It is through experience and repetition that the brain learns and makes connections between neurons. It is only through play that children get the chance to develop these higher level brain skills. Activities like watching television or DVDs, doing paper and pencil tasks, or flash cards do not offer the possibility to develop imagination. Offering varied activities for play and exploring with real objects, people, and nature gives the brain the ability to pretend and to gain knowledge about how things in the world work. 

These types of experiences add to developing essential brain connections and contribute to the knowledge needed for the process of creativity. Creative ideas occur when the brain is in a relaxed state. A lack of stress allows us to open our mind to combining what we already know with new information. Our brains are then able to generate new thoughts and ideas.

You can read more on the importance of play in the early years in this article, All Work and No Play Makes For A Troubling Trend In Early Education, from Science Daily. The article shares thoughts from Anne Haas Dyson, a professor of curriculum and instruction in the U. of I. College of Education.

“While Dyson does see some value in teaching the ABCs to children in pre-kindergarten, she thinks that trying to accelerate learning actually works against a child’s development. Kindergarten and preschool, she said, should be a place for children to experience play as intellectual inquiry, before they get taken over by the tyranny of high-stakes testing.
“I’m certainly not opposed to literacy in the early grades,” Dyson said, “but the idea that we can eliminate play from the curriculum doesn’t make sense. Kids don’t respond well to sitting still in their desks and listening at that age. They need stimulation.”
Dyson said that having an early-childhood curriculum reduced to isolated test scores or other measurable pieces of information doesn’t take into account a child’s interests or an ability to imagine, problem solve or negotiate with other children, all of which are important social and intellectual qualities.
“All tests tell us is how many letters and how many sounds children know,” she said. “I think there should be this grand societal conversation about what’s intellectually motivating and exciting for our children.”

Through sharing this type of information it is my hope that EVERYONE will understand how children’s brains develop best. We can so easily make a positive difference when we use all the knowledge we have to provide the experiences young children need most!