Creativity: A Powerful Tool for Developing Brains
Nina Meehan is the Creative Parenting Expert and CEO of Bay Area Children’s Theatre. She has concentrated her efforts to help the arts, specifically theater, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nina is the President of the Board of Directors of TYA/USA, the National Organization of Theaters for Young Audiences.
Due to the pandemic, the Bay Area Children’s Theatre have had to close their doors to the 175,000 kids they serve in a year; in response to this, the award-winning theater company created the Play On! Musical Theater series, 3 screen-free audio musical adventure kits for children of all ages to use right in your family’s living room. The kits can be found at www.playonkits.com
The more kids use their brains, the more their minds develop and grow. As kids interact with the world around them and explore different experiences, they create deeper and more complex connections in the brain, which expands their mind and their thinking. Creative experiences lead to brain development, because creative activity touches so many different aspects of brain function.
Let’s break down all the different areas of the brain function that are used in different types of creative play.
A child is playing “restaurant” with her mom. She is pretending to bake different kinds of pizzas, opening and closing her “oven,” using play props to mimic the activity of baking the pizzas, and then “serving” them to her mom, to whom the child has assigned the role of “customer in the restaurant.”
This seems like a very simple activity, one that we might dismiss as “just play.” But, let’s look at what the child’s brain does to make this game happen.
Memory (Hippocampus) has to kick in so she can envision what a restaurant is and looks like
Language (Wernicke’s area and Broca’s area) is being used and created to communicate with her “customer”
Imagination (Neocortex) is active as she comes up with different kinds of pizzas
Social Interaction (Prefrontal Cortex) occurs to ensure that her “customer” is happy with the restaurant experience
Gross Motor (Motor Cortex) skills are being used as the child stirs the ingredients, opens and closes the oven, serves the pizza
A child is outside collecting small items from nature. He sorts them into different piles based on their color, size and shape. Then, glues the item to a piece of paper to make nature art. Again, seems simple, but this activity involves so many different aspects of brain development.
Sight (Occipital Lobe), to see the small objects
Smell (Frontal and Temporal Lobe), as the child explores the outside world and notices the scent of the tree nearby
Problem Solving (Frontal Lobe), to determine which item goes into which pile
Touch (Parietal Lobe), as the child assesses each item and its texture and determines where it wants to live in space on the paper
Fine Motor (Cerebellum), his ability to place the items on the paper and dab glue onto the paper
All of these elements interact and interconnect, supporting the growth of white matter throughout the brain, which helps the various regions of the brain communicate with each other. Creativity involves so many different modalities: music, movement, story, play, visual art. Each one of these uses different combinations of brain parts. The more combinations that occur, the more critical connections are made. It’s those connections that nurture the brain.
Solving open-ended problems (problems or challenges that have no set solution) is a terrific workout for a child’s brain. That is exactly what creativity is, engaging with open-ended problems in the form of games and play. As children engage with story or song or any other creative activity, there is no right or wrong. Teaching our children to take the risk of engaging in something ambiguous and new puts them on the path to lifelong learning.
Creativity also gives children an outlet for expressing their emotions. Emotional expression is at the heart of emotional regulation (Limbic System). If a child can paint their sadness or dance their anger, they are one step closer to learning how to name that emotion and allow it to move through them without stopping them in their tracks. Avoiding meltdowns at the grocery store? That’s a win!
In the end, creativity is good for a child’s brain because it is FUN! It is fun to create; it is fun to learn through play; it is fun to make and do; it is fun to move; it is fun to sing! Learning for kids should not feel like taking cough syrup. If your child is smiling, giggling and interacting, they are, by definition, engaged in the activity at hand. And that develops the brain! Creativity is the ultimate tool for giving kids the brain power to grow into emotionally aware adults who can face life’s challenges, tackle the unknown, and solve problems as they arise.
-Nina Meehan
