Creative kiDS

How to Nurture Imagination

by Ronica O’Hara

Young children are naturally curious and inventive, yet research shows that their creative thinking skills peak at around age 6 and start to decline once they start formal schooling—a trend that’s accelerating in recent years with kids’ heavy digital use.

This doesn’t bode well for their future on our rapidly changing planet. “Our world continues to evolve at an unprecedented rate. It’s estimated that many of the jobs we will need in 10 or 20 or 30 years haven’t yet been invented,” says children’s education psychologist Charlotte Reznick, Ph.D., author of The Power of Your Child’s Imagination. “Kids of today need to stretch their creative juices to come up with these new jobs and prepare for an ever-challenging and changing world.”

Parents are integral in nourishing creativity, but according to research from the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab, the role of parents is less about “teaching” creativity and more about creating a fertile environment in which creativity will take root, grow and flourish. Establishing that rich forum involves some simple strategies. Encourage their curiosity. “An attitude of curiosity connected to wonder, acceptance, flexibility and openness can bring out innovation and novelty,” says Reznick. That means not only being responsive to kids’ questions like, “Why do strawberries have seeds on the outside?” but also engaging their imagination to explore the world and to solve everyday problems. “Ask them, ‘What would it take to finish this project?’ Make it fun, brainstorm and mind-map, rather than make linear lists,” she suggests. “Ask open-ended questions, perhaps a bit out of the norm. ‘How did you feel when you were writing that short