The benefits of arts for kids are many and include problem-solving abilities, creativity, literacy, fine & gross motor skills, connection, and understanding.
Educators tell us that art encourages fine motor skills, neural development, and problem-solving abilities and that it can be used effectively to teach and understand other key subjects such as reading, writing, math, and science.
Therapists tell us that art is valuable because it allows children to process their world, to deal with sometimes scary emotions in a safe way, and because it gives them critical sensory input.
Artists tell us that art is important for its own sake—as a source of beauty and expression, as well as simply for the process of creating.
Kids tell us that art is fun, an activity they enjoy.
Parents tell us that art is vital to their families because it keeps everyone engaged and happy and helps with the sometimes difficult transitions of the day.
1. Art promotes creativity.
Creativity is the ability to think outside the proverbial box, to string two unrelated ideas together in a new way. Solutions to major problems and breakthroughs of all kinds are linked to creativity.
The ability to be creative is vital to the success of our children and the well-being of our world. Now, more than ever, as we face incredible challenges such as racial discord, wars, global warming, and mass extinctions. Individuals, organizations, and governments seek innovative solutions every day.
According to the International Child Art Foundation, “Research indicates that a child who is exposed to the arts acquires a special ability to think creatively, be original, discover, innovate, and create intellectual property—key attributes for individual success and social prosperity in the twenty-first century.”
2. Art encourages neural connections.
Art is an activity that can employ all the senses––sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste––depending on the activity. Children’s brain synapses fire away as they experiment and create by squishing paint between their fingers, mixing colors & materials, or drawing from imagination or what they see in front of them.
3. Art builds fine motor skills.
Gripping a paintbrush, drawing dots and lines, mixing colors, cutting with scissors, controlling a glue stick or squeezing a glue bottle, kneading and rolling playdough, tearing paper—all of these tasks require increasing amounts of dexterity and coordination, yet they are so fun and rewarding that children want to do them over and over. As kids engage in art activities over time, their fine motor skills improve.
4. Scribbling is a precursor to writing.
Babies and toddlers begin by scribbling randomly, back and forth. But the more they scribble, the more they are able to control the crayon and its movements across the paper.
As children learn to control their scribbling, they make a wider variety of shapes, eventually making all the shapes necessary to write the letters of the alphabet—any alphabet.
5. Art develops problem-solving abilities.
Open-ended, process-oriented art is nothing but an endless opportunity for making choices, coming to conclusions, second-guessing decisions, and evaluating results.
Children become more comfortable with uncertainty and remain flexible thinkers, which is key for creativity and confidence. And the more experience they have with a variety of materials and techniques, the more likely they are to try new combinations and ideas.