Young Creators - Society

We are used to admiring child prodigies - children who, in their young years, possess adult skills, study at the best universities in the world and earn their first millions sitting at their desks. The ray of glory rarely illuminates the simpler guys. At the same time, each person possesses unique creative abilities that can and should be proud of. These are not empty words, but a fact proven by numerous studies. How can we help a child to realize his creative potential?

The boundaries of creativity

Creativity is not limited to playing musical instruments, dancing, creating literary texts and important scientific discoveries. Creativity is a person's activity, as a result of which fresh solutions are created for him, knowledge appears, new ways of getting out of the situation are invented. Do you feel how the accents are shifted, how the figure of a specific personality gains strength? What is important is how creativity affects a person, and not how it forms the cultural values of society.

A child is a creator if, instead of the helicopter provided for in the instructions, he collects figures of animals and houses for them from the designer, and complements the missing details with paper. If organizes classmates to act out a scene instead of the standard presentation in the lesson.

A creative approach is the desire to diversify the game with new rules: to introduce the second “water” in hide and seek, which should elude the first; while playing Activity, explain words only with closed eyes; abolish the offside rule in football. A creative approach is to answer not that it is wrong, but in a special way, so that they say: "There is something in this!"

Young creators see opportunities where others do not; do not follow stereotypes; easily perceive new information and are able to apply it; connect and associate separate concepts and phenomena; do not settle for an obvious solution, ignoring the fear of appearing funny or incomprehensible. They are dreamy, ambitious, captivated by ideas, open to new experiences.

Success lies ahead

The less creative thinking is developed, the more often a reduced emotional background, dissatisfaction with oneself and others, the presence of internal barriers to achieving goals, and instability to manipulation are manifested. Creativity harmonizes emotional life, allows you to follow your own path.

It is very profitable to be creative - even at ten years old, at least at forty. A child with a special perspective on any issue lays the foundation for achievement in adulthood. Creativity opens the door to success in almost all professional fields. In the conditions of modern life - competitive, rushing at great speed, full of psychological challenges - it is not enough for a candidate for an attractive job to be an expert in his field.

Employers give preference to specialists with developed universal personality traits that allow them to achieve maximum efficiency. Creative thinking, the ability to work in changing non-standard situations take one of the leading places in the rating of demanded qualities.

Exercises and games

There are several fun, and most importantly, effective ways to develop a child's creativity. These are literary games, exercises directly related to music, painting and cinema, tasks for imagining and analyzing your own inner world, mini-meetings with parents.

Invite your son or daughter to predict the actions of people in different life situations; think about how natural phenomena and things that surround us can change. What if your child introduces himself as a different person, complementing the phrases of a friend or neighbor? Tell me what happens at home when no one is there? Take a trip with the power of thought and come up with new uses for the most common objects?

Add to this work with thinking and word: come up with questions, neologisms and concepts together, make tongue twisters and sentences starting with the same letter, write poems and jokes, select metaphors and antonyms for each word in a statement, read by roles, think out literary works, beat and listen to both musical and speech rhythms.

Remember the game "Find Ten Differences"? Transfer it from the monitor or the pages of a magazine to reality - let the child look for similarities in different objects and situations, differences in similar, and unusual in the usual. Without a doubt, it is useful to select associations for objects, concepts and phenomena, to compose stories from pictures, to interpret abstract images, to draw verbally and with both hands.

Do not be afraid to burden children with more adult "fun": Solve problems with the whole family using brainstorming or a list of tasks that will help you cope with the situation that has arisen. Motivate, where possible, to structure information by compiling an algorithm for morphological parsing of part of speech or observing the daily routine. Explain how important it is to understand yourself, understand what is happening in your head, and analyze sensations - bodily, visual, auditory. Learn to make generalizations and formulate conclusions, not spied on by parents or friends, but your own, obtained by your own mind and diligence.

Ideal conditions

Exercise is good and healthy, but you can't limit yourself to it. As Mikhail Lomonosov said, “nothing happens without a sufficient reason,” so do not forget to create conditions for creative development so that your child is comfortable and interesting to learn about his inner world and opportunities.

For the development of the creative abilities of children, parents should:

Seek to understand the true personality of the child

Be attentive, special literature, seek the help of a specialist (psychologist, teacher), listen to wise people whom you trust and who really "see" your child, and not just generalize their life and professional experience. Do not impose your ideas.

Skip the child forward in the knowledge of the world

You can push, protect, and offer it. This does not mean that there is no need to instill cultural norms. But be sure to leave room for natural, spontaneous "search" behavior. The ease and activity of the creator himself is where value is hidden.

Provide an "encounter with a miracle"

Drawing the child's attention to specific facts and events, focus on ambiguity, unusualness, show a "miracle" in ordinary things, expand the set of places where you go, the types of activities you do.

Create and search for "sites"

To represent creativity to create and seek a community of like-minded people.

Enjoy your own creativity

Infect children with positive emotional arousal. Already in infancy, your baby learns from you to emotionally react to unfamiliar situations.

Ability is presupposed, but it must become a skill

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Love questions

“What do you mean?”, “How to do it?”, “Why do you think so?”. The question should be open - one that cannot be answered "yes" or "no", this stimulates the baby to think. When a child needs to make a decision, helping him, offering him a choice, add: "Or something else?"

Letting go of limiting beliefs

Get rid of such beliefs as "you are not given", "you cannot jump above your head", "where do you go", "what others will say."

Hard work is our everything

Appreciate will, efficiency, responsibility outside of time. Many creative people use rigorous self-discipline to develop their abilities. While your child is small, create conditions for the development of these qualities, first of all, show by example.

Reinforce intrinsic motivation

Reinforce motivation, not external encouragement. Place an emphasis on living the pleasure of the creative process, love its product.

Do not protect the child enough to insure him in all situations

Take risks for the sake of the goal, try the unknown. The straw-lined path constrains the development of creativity.

More about this

Laney M.

My child is an introvert. How to reveal hidden talents and prepare for life in society.

M.: Mann, Ivanov and Ferber, 2014.

Provide reasonable support for the child

Support your child in situations of failure. Do not regret, do not make excuses, but sympathize, say that this is normal, discuss what needs to be done now or in the future.

Get acquainted with life stories and experiences of other creative people

Reflect on them with your child, showing a variety of paths and areas of life for self-expression.

Avoid perfectionism

Of course, the result is important, but an overstated level of requirements, the creation of an ideal that must be met, excessive criticality enslave.

Learn to respond correctly to criticism

Teach you to correctly perceive criticism of non-standard manifestations, the requirement to be like everyone else in school or kindergarten.

Do not shackle yourself with age restrictions

… While developing the creative abilities of your child.

Last but not least, not all of the suggested guidelines may work for you and your child

Relying on information about the experience of other people, on an understanding of the subtle characteristics of your child, which is absolutely different from all others, show your own creative parenting approach. Parenting is one of the most creative activities: what else, if not it, creates a unique and wonderful result - a person?

EXPERT OPINION

From talent to happiness

Giftedness is a consequence of the interaction of two factors - genetic (innate prerequisites) and social (development of cognitive processes and specific abilities within a family, a friendly and then a work collective). And the desire of parents to find talent in their baby is completely understandable. True, in 90% of cases, moms and dads try to realize through their child what they themselves did not succeed in. With this approach, the needs and individual capabilities of the child are ignored, which is fundamentally wrong.

If parents want to reveal talent in their child, it is worth organizing a developing environment for him (providing a wide range of possible activities), being attentive to his experiences and needs, supporting his endeavors, being involved in the child's affairs, praising him for his successes and consoling him in failures, accepting the child as he is. So the child learns and understands himself more, and over time comes to such a level of self-organization, in which he builds life in accordance with his own plans and ideas about happiness.

Maria VINOGRADOVA,

consultant psychologist