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Creativity

Kids seem to be naturally creative. If we make space for them to mess around and create from their own well of imagination without criticism or evaluation, that creativity can flourish. Research suggests that encouraging kids to be creative engages and expands aspects of their intelligence that can bolster math, reading, and science skills. Creativity supports problem solving and can help kids become inventive and flexible thinkers. That’s right, playing with clay, banging on a drum, and doing science experiments with the contents of your refrigerator can actually make your child smarter.

In his book, Frames of Mind, Harvard professor Howard Gardner explained his theory of multiple intelligences and identifies seven types of intelligence (the 8th was identified by Gardner since publication of Frames of Mind):

1. Visual/spatial
2. Verbal/linguistic
3. Musical
4. Bodily/kinesthetic
5. Logical/mathematical
6. Interpersonal
7. Intrapersonal
8. Naturalist

Kids’ creativity can be nurtured in relation to these multiple intelligences. Think about what your kids love to do most or seem to do best in relation to these intelligences. Does your child love to build, draw, arrange furniture/flowers, do puzzles, or find faces in a crowd? These are all expressions of visual/spatial intelligence. Kids who are very aware of their own feelings, tend be self-motivated, and sensitive to values are demonstrating intrapersonal intelligence.

Your child can be smart and creative in so many ways. Keeping multiple intelligences in mind can help parents recognize the unique strengths of their children. Laurel Schmidt, author of Seven Times Smarter reminds us “when we overlook their gifts, kids feel confused and ashamed. They don’t just hide their talents – they bury them. Which means they may never get a chance to feel and act as smart as they are.”

School settings can encourage or ignore the children’s creativity and multiple intelligences. Most schools are under pressure to produce good readers and mathematicians and many focus so intently on doing so that “they routinely dismiss the other five intelligences, even though research shows that studying math or art helps kids improve in all their subjects. (Schmidt)”

What happens when the 8 intelligences go to school? Schmidt offers many examples of how children’s’ intelligences get overlooked and thwarted; “a child with extraordinary interpersonal intelligence may be dismissed as a social butterfly, when she should be encouraged to run for president of the student council.” Kids with high bodily/kinesthetic intelligence may really struggle with the expectation that they sit still and quiet for long periods of time while focusing on repetitive tasks. Those children may then be identified as unmotivated or having some kind of deficiency.

As parents, we can be aware of our children’s’ need for creative exploration and opportunities to explore their multiple areas of intelligence. By noticing the unique strengths of our multi-talented children, we can be better advocates and supporters for positive, growth-promoting experiences both at school and at home.

Schmidt offers these tips for encouraging and supporting your children’s creativity and developing intelligences. She calls them “rules for responding to miracles”:

1. Be a supporter: Celebrate accomplishments and efforts even if they are messy or don’t look like much to you. Compliment their efforts in front of siblings and significant adults.
2. Be a good listener: When your child talks about their ideas, projects, or inventions, smile, listen, and respond with genuine curiosity
3. Ask good questions: Open ended, evaluation-free questions that express your curiosity and invite their thinking like…what made you think that? What else could you do? What part to do you like best? How did you get that idea?
4. Do nothing for kids that they can do for themselves: avoid finishing their projects or telling them how their poems should end
5. Avoid criticism: “When you look at their painting and say ‘Why don’t you make the horse brown?’ you may notice that your child’s interest falters. She may even abandon her work…because she was going to paint the horse blue. Now she has to decide whose idea is better, yours or hers…”
6. Be patient: It might take days, weeks, or even months for your child to finish a project, book, or artwork. They might even be destroyed or changed again and again…”but habits of the mind are continually developing, sometimes with little physical evidence”
7. Be a good watcher: “When kids really tap into their intelligence, you’ll see the signs. They’re excited.. their ideas grow and take up more space.. they return to the activity over and over…step back and enjoy the view.”
8. Be a good cheerleader: “Convey your delight in whole sentences, not just smiles and nods”