<strong>How Art Promotes Development</strong>

 

The Art Area is a place filled with materials that children can enjoy on a purely sensory level. Here children can create and represent their ideas in a visual form. On a table or the floor, at an easel or a workbench, children draw, paint, knead, cut, glue, and make things of their own choosing.  Sometimes they simply explore the materials and enjoy the process. At other times they create designs or make something that represents a real object, place, or living thing. Creative art is another language children use to express what they know and what they feel. The Art Area is a studio for children’s development and learning.

<strong>Social/emotional development</strong>

Art is a natural vehicle for children to express their feelings. Children reflect their thoughts and emotions through their choices of color, texture, and media. For example, when happy or excited, a child might use bright colors. When sad or upset, a child may choose darker tones. Children also express their originality and individuality in their art. Who says the pumpkins they paint have to be orange? A child may prefer having a purple one simply because it will stand out better in a patch.

<strong>Physical development</strong>

As children tear paper for a collage or use scissors to cut, they refine small muscle movements. Making lines and shapes with markers and crayons or hitting a nail on the head with a hammer are activities that help children develop the fine motor control they need for writing. Art is all about fine motor skills.

<strong>Cognitive development</strong>

Children draw, paint, and sculpt what they know. As they translate their ideas and feelings into art, they use thinking skills to plan, organize, select media, and represent their impressions. When children draw, paint, and make collages, they experiment with color, line, shape, and size. Using paints, fabrics, and woodworking tools they make choices, try out ideas, plan, and experiment. They learn about cause and effect when they mix colors. Through trial and error, they learn how to balance a mobile and weave yarn.

<strong>Language development</strong>

Children often talk about what they are doing and respond to questions about their creations as they engage in art. Teachers can write down what children say about their artwork as a permanent record of the experience. Art also fosters vocabulary development as children learn and use related technical vocabulary: sculpture, palette, and clamp, to name just a few terms.