The Importance of Creativity in Children's Development - Case Study Example

Introduction The child development has undergone many transformations over human history. As the global environment is changing at fast pace, it becomes vital to study the importance of creativity on children’s development and contributions by psychologists in this specific area. Theoretical innovators have left their mark in the historical development of psychoanalytical psychology by contributing in child development research, ideas, knowledge and novel as well as easier to understand methods of teaching to the children. The development of a child is a process of becoming biologically and psychologically independent and mature. This building process is an ongoing, continuous and dynamic process. The progress is a directional step towards increasing autonomy of an individual from dependency. These transformational changes are strongly influenced by genetically determined factors like overall growth, changes in proportion of body and brain parts, and mellowing certain tasks like vision and dietary needs. The specific characteristics occur in a particular sequence and within a specific period. The developmental process can be boosted or nurtured by manipulating various events during early childhood, and physical, social, cultural, learning and emotional areas through environmental stimuli (Ashford et al., 2001). The developmental domains should be gazed and grasped carefully to understand the overall growth of the child. This helps in unfolding abilities of each child. Then, accordingly efforts should be made so that, the child is encouraged to learn and evolve. Bringing together all the development aspects, lead to flowering of a child. Holistic development of the child is the integrated approach of nurturing child’s all round developmental progress. Nature emphasises on the innate or inborn characteristics of human being based on the concept of the biology. Nurture emphasises on the modifying the innate features by various environmental stimuli or exposure. Human biology is the storehouse of diverse possibilities or the potential personality of the individual which can be become splendid, normal or even abnormal by type of experiences available or made available (Pressley & McCormick, 2006, p.4). Most of the recent developmental psychologists accept the fact of bioecological interpretation of human development. The inseparable disposition and complex interaction of ‘nature’ and ‘nurture’ makes the individual unique person with particular set of abilities. Human intelligence is the most fiercely challenged feature in the debate. Some researchers are strong believer of parental heritability of intelligence. Some researchers feel that every individual is born with varied broad range of intelligence. This range could be exploited fully by environmental stimulating factors like socio-cultural attributes, colleagues, the family environment, and educators. The highest genetic potential of the individual can be achieved through positive and high quality environment (Pressley & McCormick, 2006, p.4). Biologically determined development and trait in the person is a function of environmental experiences (Pressley & McCormick, 2006, p. 6). The escalating effect of nurture on nature should be exploited to intervene developmental delay and build a positive splendid personality. The creativity is the part of intelligence which simplifies the problem in a artistic way. But creativity is not only restricted to intelligence, but in developmental psychology it has meaning to strength abilities like fluency, flexibility, originality which leads to more development than natural progression (Sternberg, 1999, p. 169). Creativity is the art and craft of life, which is inherent and presents at an early age. It is present in varied proportions in each child, but can be enhanced with positive efforts to fuel growth and to get positive impact on life in long run. Creativity in the children is inbuilt. This attribute should be cherished, preserved, respected and enjoyed to get most out of it. Creativity of the children can be increased by the stimulation of natural development in them without guiding actual process of the development (Grillo, 2008). Play should be a part of children’s everyday lives which gives children opportunity to use and build creativity through the development of imagination and dexterity. Well planned activities encourage physical, cognitive, emotional and social growth in children (Ginsburg, 2007). The coordinated efforts of parents, educators, caregivers able to cherish healthy learning strategies which effectively motivate creativity of the students, foster their growth and it reflects in their performance. The child should be given time and space to flourish creativity through art and tactile exploration. Sometimes, the child should able to use time in his own way, and make own preferences which is the step towards autonomy (Ginsburg, 2007). Through this, the child develops motor skills and cognitive skills. Foundation of early childhood development is based on some of the pioneering theories of educational theorists and psychologists. All the theorists believe parents are prime important to achieve developmental cornerstones in their child’s life (Yr Adran Plant, Addysg, Dysgu Gydol Oes a Sgiliau, 2008). Freud’s theory of psychosexual development considered creativity as outcome of sexual or aggressive phantasies, but which failed to differentiate the intensity of creativity among different children (Sternberg, 1999, p. 170). The relationships between creativity and universal developmental progression are categorised into nonuniversal theory using creative reorganisations. Creativity can be new interpretations for existing entities or solving problems in a different way or finding new conceptual framework. Each child has cognitive abilities in certain areas which if they engaged can develop fast and can achieve heights of the domain easily. Every individual has certain turning points in life where integration of cognitive structures occur, at this point career picks up (Sternberg, 1999, p. 172). Friedrich Froebel (1782–1852) is a founder of kindergartens and conceptualized curriculum based on a theory of pre-school education. It emphasises on holistic development of the child through play and active learning using language, actions, feelings, and thoughts. It includes structured activities stories, singing games, drawing, modelling and playing with sets of objects called ‘gifts’ and ‘occupations’, such as spheres, cubes and cylinders taught by teacher. The theory states that imaginative plays vital role in cognitive development and emphasises the growth of natural as well as potential powers of children (Yr Adran Plant, Addysg, Dysgu Gydol Oes a Sgiliau, 2008). "Play is the highest expression of human development in childhood, for it alone is the free expression of what is in a childs soul." Friedrich Froebel (Froebel Web). British pediatrician D. W. Winnicott was a psychoanalyst had a pioneering work in the developmental psychology. Thinking and living creatively is the basis of his development theory. He emphasized on constitutive primitive nature of creativity and ruled out the Freud’s secondary importance to creativity. Cultural activity is not value added service to the human life but he specified that the life and cultural activity are inseparable. He introduced concepts such as ‘good enough mother’, ‘good enough setting’, ‘holding environment’, and ‘ordinary devoted mother’ and ‘creativity has ability to create the world’. His parenting tips of maternal care and response to baby’s cues necessitates attentive nurturing of creativity from the beginning of childhood itself. ‘Good enough mother’ orients her children they have only created the world and their demands are met magically (Nigel, 1996). The child survives on his/her own omnipotence. This infantile illusion of omnipotence is slowly disillusioned by the mother by exposing them to reality which is the step towards autonomy of the child. This gives identity to the child and realization of ‘not me’ reality in the external world. Between these two distance phases ‘transition phase’ called ‘transitional object’ occurs which considers time and space, as well as, union in separateness. Tangible objects like toys or intangible things like sound are sensed as other than self possession which are created or found. This ‘subjective’ and ‘objective’ play displays creativity and is the medium through which the child establishes his identity (Nigel, 1996).Winnicotts (1951) publication ‘Transitional objects and transitional phenomena’ is very well studied. Transitional object is the key concept involved in everyday development of a child. Winnicot (1951) wrote "It is in the space between inner and outer world, which is also the space between people--the transitional space--that intimate relationships and creativity occur." He told to focus on inner and outer relationship, sense of perception and apperception. He also said "When symbolism is employed the infant is already clearly distinguishing between phantasy and fact, between inner objects and external objects, between primary creativity and perception." (Winnicott, 1951). The interdisciplinary approach of parents, teachers, child care workers can boost natural creativity in the child which could form basis of rewarding and fulfilling future life. Winnicott’s famous statement is "It is in playing, and only in playing, that the individual child or adult is able to be creative and to use the whole personality and it is only in being creative that the individual discovers the self." Austrian born British psychoanalyst, Melanie Klein was the founder of ‘object relation theory’. She conceptualized the idea of ‘symbolization’ which enables human beings to relate to the world through the skills. She builded theory of creativity through observation of child’s play. She though that the play is a symbolic expression of unconscious conflicts in children (Segal, 1988, p. 2). She felt that earlier infantile fantasies and depression could be understood through play technique. She also observed that oedipal fantasies are developed at early age (2. 5 years) as opposed to Freud’s theory. Oedipal anxieties and the development of superego (internal phantasy object) at an early age interferes the play activity of children. The distress affects the development of ego, superego, and sexuality leading to emotional disorders. She proposed the intervention through psychoanalysis of distressed children by making them display suppressed aggressive and oedipal feelings. She stressed fear and aggression analysis is more important than psychosexual studies in early years, and considered love and hate as war factors. Inspite of love or hate emotional state the relationship develops with the object, which she termed as ‘part objects’. This further researched into great detail as ‘object relations theory’. She feels that infants are inherently attached to mother’s body, and for the normal development of child mother is responsible. She emphasised the importance of femininity for the development of both girls and boys. She gave primitive importance to mother for inculcating creativity in the child and future personality. For example mothers breast is the most familiar body part to infant and has a key role in the chronological development of a child. But if anything goes wrong, psychosomatic issues arise which leads to obsession of certain body parts or certain aspects of the individual (Spillius, 1994). Dr. Hanna Segal is a well known writer who published many papers on Kleinian idea of children development. She herself has great contribution in psychoanalysis on the areas like unconscious phantasy, the clinical relevance of the death instinct, and the psychic consequences of the capacity (or lack of it) to use symbols (Pick & Roper, 1999) by working with children. She had a notion that the destructive emotions attached with internal parental objects in the childhood generate creativity. She opposed Freud’s simple dream theory of children without any conflict. She felt that children also have complicated dreams like adult and not only related to fulfillment of the wish. She felt there are two types of dreams through which the individual is always exhibiting creativity: day dream and night dream. Day dreaming allows us to remain in illusionary world to make life comfortable and making the person defensive. While, dreaming at night is the output of psychotic pressure which aids in finding solution to the problem living in reality. She emphasized on dynamic nature of symbolic representation. She felt that the meaning of the same symbol is different in diverse situations and environmental stimuli are responsible for those changes. She recognized the importance of personal history which has influence on the current culture and relationships. Klein featured the importance of play in holistic development of the child which if hampered might lead to serious problems. Hanna Segal felt that art and play are also used by children to translate phantasy into reality which opposes the view of daydreaming (Segal, 1991, 101). When child is handling play material, he or she applies his own unconscious phantasies to exploit the potential of the play object and uses in different manners, but still he/she is aware it is not real (Segal, 1991, 101). Visual arts like pictures, sculptures, building etc provokes aesthetic emotion (Segal, 1991, 78). Wilfred Bion carried forward the Kleinian idea of aesthetic value and the creative process in the 1960s and 1970s. He gave new dimension to the Freud’s oedipal situation associated with family pairing group, and withholding and subsequent revealing of knowledge. For this he introduced the concepts like basic assumptions, group mentality, and the idea of the work group. He also combined his analysis with Klein’s projective identification and the interaction between the paranoid-schizoid and depressive positions. Therefore, he suggested that psychotic anxieties of the past related to first maternal object can influence adult’s life (Glover, 2005). Autism and associated disorder are known as autism spectrum disorders are pervasive developmental abnormalities found in early years of age. Autism involves neurological impairment leading to brain dysfunctioning. Autistic children are excessively attached to their major attachment figures like mother. Nonthreatening generalized situations of separation and anxiety are never faced by such children. Such children without traumatized experiences develop massive formation of avoidance reactions by imagining misleading attachment in a protective environment. Childhood autism has autogenerated physical sensations different from natural perceptions and displays two types of pathological behavior: the encapsulated child & entangled child. The encapsulated child imagines himself as complete bodily continuity with the mother; while the entangled child creates in vivo image inside the body of the mother to ignore separation (Cohen & Jay, 1996). The relational difficulties create inanimate autistic objects (Tustin, 1992, p. 119) which hamper primary creativity, imagination, fantasies and ideas which would have progressed in the normal development (Tustin, 1992, p. 118). Conclusion Holistic development is multitude developmental approach emphasizing on synergistic relationship between all human developmental areas. Creativity is the art and craft of life, which is inherent and presents at an early age. Creativity is the offshoot of intelligence which should be cherished, respected and nurtured. The coordinated efforts of parents, educators, caregivers able to cherish healthy learning strategies which effectively motivate creativity of the students, foster their growth and it reflects in their performance. Well designed curriculum based on creativity should encourage strong foundation in early childhood development. References Ashford, J.B., LeCroy, C.W., & Lortie, K.L. (2001). Human behavior in the social environment (2nd ed.) Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Cohen, D. & Jay S. M. (1996). Autistic Barriers In The Psychoanalysis Of Borderline Adults. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 77:913-933. Ginsburg, K. R. (2007). The Importance of Play in Promoting Healthy Child Development and Maintaining Strong Parent-Child Bonds. Pediatrics, 119 (1), 182-191. Glover, N. (2005). Chapter Four: The Legacy of Wilfred Bion. In Psychoanalytic Aesthetics: The British School. http://www.human-nature.com/free-associations/glover/chap4.html Grillo, Jacque. (Wed Oct 15, 2008) The Importance of Creativity: A Peek into Your Childs Imagination. The Savvy Source. http://astrology.yahoo.com/channel/parenting/the-importance-of-creativity-a-peek-into-your-childs-imagination-288419/ Froebel Web. http://www.froebelweb.org/ http://mythosandlogos.com/Winnicott.html Nigel, Hand. (1996). D. W. Winnicott: The Creative Vision. pp. 167-172. Pick, D. & Roper, L. (2000). Psychoanalysis, Dreams, History: an Interview with Hanna Segal. History Workshop Journal, 49, 161-170. Pressley, M. & McCormick, C. (2006). Child and adolescent development for educators. Edition: illustrated, Guilford Press. Segal, Hanna. (1988). Introduction to the work of Melanie Klein. Karnac Books. Segal, Hanna. (1991). Dream, phantasy, and art. Reprint edition.Taylor & Francis. Spillius, E. B. (1994 ). Developments in Kleinian Thought: Overview and Personal View. The Melanie Klein Trust. Sternberg, R. J. (1999). Handbook of creativity. By Feldman, D. H. The development of creativity. Tustin, Frances. (1992). Autistic states in children. 2nd edition, revised, illustrated, Routledge. Yr Adran Plant, Addysg, Dysgu Gydol Oes a Sgiliau (2008) Learning and Teaching Pedagogy Department for Children, Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills, Welsh Assembly Government. Read More