Creative development for young children is only partly about exploration with paint, glue, dough and other enjoyable hands-on materials. An accessible indoor and outdoor learning environment will help babies, toddlers and very young children to develop a more general creative flair for thinking and problem solving. So long as they have generous time and space for exploration, very young children will soon busy themselves finding out and wondering, 'What will happen if I...?' and 'How come that happened?'
Several sequences from the Birth to Three Matters video are excellent examples of very young creativity in action.
* The sequence with the baby painting wide swirls may first attract your attention as a creative experience.
* The sequence with another sitting baby playing with two balls is equally creative. That baby cannot say a single word, but the buzz of open-ended thinking is shown in his actions.
* The young child 'talking' on the telephone shows you how creativity goes hand in hand with the emergence of simple pretend play. That short sequence showcases the potential skills of older toddlers and two-year-olds. They have learned enough about their social world to be able to 'recycle' it meaningfully through their self-initiated play.
What the first two examples have in common is the time that each child has been given to become immersed in their creative exploration. The adult close to the baby with the balls follows his lead completely and you feel that the only way the practitioners will have documented the young painter will be with a photo. In the example of the young girl, she is able to take her pretend phone call and talk with her real companion because her nursery has a permanent home area.
Each example shows in action the eighth of the ten key principles underlying Birth to Three Matters: 'Children learn when they are given appropriate responsibility, allowed to make errors, decisions and choices and respected as autonomous and competent learners.'
With respect
The importance of respecting young children's explorations and learning are set out clearly in each component card within A Competent Learner. You can find many suggestions to confirm good practice, such as having a generous collection of everyday objects like pegs, corks and boxes.
The reminders about hands-on materials including paint, PVA glue, water and leaves are all in the context of providing the resources and enabling young children to decide how long they need to explore.
There is nothing in the Birth to Three Matters resource (nor in Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage) that supports the unfortunate practice in some settings of insisting that every child make or decorate a similar end-product, because this item is linked to a topic. This kind of 'creative conveyer belt' is not recommended, let alone compulsory for over-threes.
So, teams or individuals who have slipped this unwise practice into their planning for under-threes need to reconnect with what it actually says in the guidance.
When adults undermine genuine creativity, they are usually worried about having something to fill a display board or as a way to 'prove' to parents that their children have spent a productive day.
The anxiety of some practitioners is addressed with a significant recommendation in the Challenges and Dilemmas box on the back of the Being Creative card. The key quote is: 'For young children, the process of creating is more important than an end product. Be sure that everyone understands the importance of the process so they do not expect "products"
from babies or very young children.'
Early years professionalism means finding a way round the sense of pressure that can arise from a parent's comment like, 'Hasn't he done anything today?' Good practice cannot be to think that you had better get the children to make a picture, whether they want to or not.
Most parents will be responsive to different ways for you to share their child's day. Photographs show the genuine thrill of a toddler foot-painting session. Nurseries and childminders can ensure that a low shelf is used for children to display what they feel is their achievement for the day. It might be a playdough ball with the marks of poking fingers, a very special stone or leaf, or it could be a simple Duplo model. Some artistic creations need to be viewed in their original locations, for instance a child's careful layout of twigs in the garden.
Material world
Of course, there is a positive role for adult-initiated experiences; the baby engrossed in painting did not organise that lovely hands-on session.
Helpful practitioners operate within flexible, short-term planning that gives young children time to explore different materials and learn to use simple tools such as thick brushes, sponge wedges, crayons and chunky chalks.
They look ahead in a simple way - for example, offering some shower scrunchies today with the paint. Another day, perhaps, they put some twigs or feathers by the paint or cornflour mix. The most they would do is a simple 'demonstration' by picking up the twig and trailing it through the cornflour. If young children are taken with the shower scrunchies, then these items can become part of the permanent arts corner or trolley.
There should be plenty of time for young children to revisit materials - today is not their one and only opportunity. Sometimes children just want to immerse themselves in one aspect of the materials.
Look at the video excerpt against each card of A Competent Learner on the CD. Young children are having an enjoyable time with glue and spreaders.
But some of them are much more interested in watching the glue drip off the spreaders than doing much in the way of sticking. The adults in the sequence respect the children's fascination; there is no pressure on them to do a 'proper' picture. (If you have not yet found these visual examples, go to the Main Menu of the CD, choose Contents, then Index of Videos.) Children can develop as creative thinkers when they are allowed to make decisions in their play, when there can be a real element of 'maybe' and 'why not?' Adults are responsible for keeping young children safe enough, but enjoyable play will rarely be neat and tidy. For young children to exercise choice, they need a learning environment with plenty of accessible materials on open shelves and in containers (easy to take outdoors too).
Mobile toddlers often bring together play resources in a creative way.
Large cotton reels do not just have to be used for threading. It may be fun to drop them into a tin with a loud clang. But a tin-full may need to be moved across the room because the reels, in this young child's view, make a better enclosure for the animals than the fiddly fence that came with the farm. The idea of schemas (mentioned in Making Connections and Being Creative) has been one way for adults to notice that there is deliberate method from young children in what may look to the grown-ups like mess.
Further information
* Bruce, Tina Cultivating creativity in babies, toddlers and young children 2004, Hodder and Stoughton
* Myer, Cathy Children as artists leaflet from 'Learning together' series.
Telephone Early Education 020 7539 5400 or download from www.early-education.org.uk
* Sure Start Inspiring Creativity and Imagination Toolkit has good examples of projects in which children were fully involved. Download from www.surestart.gov.uk/communications/ childcareworkers/inspiringcreativity
