Professor James Kaufman is a teacher of educational psychology and has written extensively about creativity over the years. Here he contributes to The Conversation by making suggestions for nurturing creativity in youngsters – without resorting to expensive toys or advertised classes.
Be cautious with rewards
Some parents may be tempted to reward their children for being creative, which is traditionally defined as producing something that is both new and useful. However, rewards and praise may actually discourage a child’s natural drive to being creative. That’s because the activity may become associated with the reward rather than the fun the child naturally has doing it.
Of course, I am not saying you should not place your child’s artwork on your fridge. But avoid being too general—”I love every bit of it!”—or too focused on their innate traits—”You are so creative!” Instead, praise specific aspects that you like in your child’s artwork—”I love the way you made such a cute tail on that dog!” or “The way you combined colours here is pretty!”
Some rewards can be helpful. For example, for a child who loves to draw, giving them materials that they might use in their artwork is an example of a reward that will help encourage them.
It is also important to note that there are many activities—creative or otherwise—for which a child may not have a particular interest. There is no harm—and much potential benefit—in using rewards in these cases. If a child has an assignment for a creative school activity and hates doing it, there may not be any inherent passion to be dampened in the first place.
Encourage curiosity and new experiences
Research shows that creative people are naturally more open to new experiences and ideas. Many parents have children who naturally gravitate towards new things, such as food, activities, games or playmates. In these cases, simply continue to offer opportunities and encouragement.
For those whose children may be more reticent, there are options. For example, a study -although it was on adults – found that crossword or sudoku puzzles help increase openness. Childhood and adolescence is a period during which openness to novelties grows. Encouraging curiosity and intellectual engagement is one way. Other ways might include encouraging sensible risk-taking – such as trying a new sport for a less athletic child or a new instrument for one less musically inclined. Even very simple variations on an evening routine, whether trying a new craft or board game or helping cook dinner, can help normalize novelty.
Help them evaluate their best ideas
What about when children are actually being creative? Most people have heard of brainstorming or other activities where many different ideas are generated. An important part of brainstorming is to be able to evaluate and select one’s best ideas.
Your child might think of 30 possible solutions to a problem, but their creativity will not be expressed if they select the one that’s least interesting—or least actionable. If giving praise can be tricky, feedback can be even tougher. If you are too harsh, you may squash your child’s passion for being creative. If you are too soft, your child may not develop their creativity to the fullest possible extent.
If your child seeks out your input make sure to give feedback after they have already brainstormed many possible ideas. Ideally, you can ensure your child still feels competent and focus on feedback that connects to their past efforts: “I like the imagery you used in your poem; you are getting better! What other metaphors might you use in this last line?”
Teach them when not to be creative
Finally, creativity isn’t always the best option. Sometimes, straightforward solutions simply work best. If the toilet is clogged and you have a plunger, you don’t need to make your own from a coat hanger and bisected rubber duck.
More notably, some people, including teachers, , say they like creative people but actually have negative views of creative kids without even realising it.
If your child is in a class where their creativity is causing some blowback, such as discipline issues or lowered grades, you may want to work with your child to help them understand the best course of action. For example, if your child is prone to blurt out their ideas regardless of whether they are related to the discussion at hand, emphasize that they should share thoughts that are directly relevant to the class topic.
If, however, you get the feeling that the teacher simply does not appreciate or like your child’s creativity, you may want to suggest that your child keep an “idea parking lot” where they write down their creative thoughts and share them with you—or a different teacher—later in the day.
Creativity has a host of academic, professional and personal benefits. With some gentle nudges, you can help your child grow and use their imagination to their heart’s content.
For efficient learning, the brain has to be ‘wired to learn’. This means that the trillions of brain cells, or neurons, need to connect to each other in order to form a network. It is rather remarkable that most of us manage to form these neurons and their connections without faults but we need to remember that there are things that can go wrong.
Thanks to research, we now know that by carefully watching how a child moves and what a child needs to do to meet an expectation from school or his home, we can get an idea of where in the brain the problem lies. Then, by giving the child’s brain a chance to repair itself, we can bring about positive changes.
This isn’t up-to-date news. Way back in 1996, a writer in an edition of Newsweek focusing on Your Child’s Brain wrote “…. There is new evidence that certain kinds of intervention can reach even the older brain and like a microscopic screwdriver rewire broken circuits.” I still remember my excitement! So today let’s have a look at an example of how we apply neurodevelopmental insights to solve a child’s learning problem.
An important reflex movement
It’s significant that many children with learning difficulties have no Headrighting Reflex (HRR). This reflex shows when the angle of the body in relation to the ground shifts – in other words, the body tilts to either side, backwards or forwards. The reflex automatically adjusts the head to remain in a nearly vertical position. In a less well coordinated child, the head does not remain or immediately return to the vertical position but stays in line with the body. In other words, the child’s head moves in line with his spine.
If the head rights itself, there is very little shift in the background compared to when the head tilts in line with the spine. (Try this yourself by swaying to each side, alternately keeping your head still in a vertical position and allowing it to align with the spine.) Such a child will find himself in a constant state of visual strain because one of the reasons for this reflex is to stabilise visual images on the retina of the eye. There is little wonder that children who don’t have this reflex may have reading problems.
Giving a child the HRR
This is where a knowledge of neurodevelopment can help. We need to give children a HRR if they haven’t developed one themselves. How do we do this?
Different parts of our bodies are controlled by different nerves but it is wise to remember that nothing stands alone. No function of the brain operates in isolation. For example, when your vestibular system (in your inner ear) is stressed (perhaps by movement), you get seasick. You feel this in your tummy and it happens because of the intimate interconnectedness of different nerves. The vagus, one of the ten cranial nerves, is responsible for causing your stomach to revolt against the movement registered by an overwhelmed vestibular system.
The HRR is influenced by another cranial nerve that controls the trapezoid muscle. This muscle controls the movements of the head and neck. If a child hasn’t developed the HRR, it is likely that there is a poor connection between the trapezoid muscle and the cranial nerve that controls it. Our job would be to connect this muscle and we use a seemingly simple movement activity to do so.
The original movement came from Carl Delacato, who worked for many years with learning disabled children. He found that having children lie on the floor and moving their arms, legs and head in a way that resembled the movement of a ghecko or lizard, caused significant and positive changes in the brain.
The Flip Flop movement
The benefits of the Flip Flops are many. Information goes into both sides of the brain as the muscles move equally on both sides. At the same time the brain gets sensory information from the weight of the body moving across the surface on which the child is lying. This is very important because during later development the brain is constantly having to coordinate information received from the two brain hemispheres to allow for stereophonic hearing, posture and vision. So with our Flip Flops, we are not only stimulating the cranial nerve to connect to the trapezoid muscle but also influencing vision, hearing and balance. Through this, information is communicated to many other brain areas, especially to the cerebellum, the midbrain and the thalamus. The thalamus is an area of the brain that acts as a gate-keeper – either allowing sensory information to pass through to higher brain (cortical) areas or not. If it fails to allow certain information through, the important messages will not arrive at the proper destination.
So in short, by giving a child a (seemingly) simple activity, we are effecting profound changes in brain function. We can’t control what comes out of the brain but we certainly can control what goes in. This helps the brain receive the information it needs to correct faulty wiring.
Other reflex movements are significant too
Giving the child a head-righting reflex is good but we need to test for later developing movements as well. Once we’ve made connections in the lower brain regions, we have to persevere to encourage connections needed for more sophisticated functions.
When you bring about better neurological organization, you are addressing basic problems in the various areas of the brain. This enables the child to function independently and with improved abilities in many different spheres of life. Such children seem to ‘get it together’ and with this, their self-esteem and confidence soars.
Fussy eating during childhood seems to be prevalent in many countries. Apart from the serious question of how selective eating might affect a child’s health and development, difficult mealtimes takes a toll on the whole family. Picky eating might be considered normal during the toddler years but becomes a real issue when it extends into school years.
A recent study from USC, the University of South Australia, and the University of Queensland is providing a better understanding of factors influencing fussy eating, and what is more likely to increase or decrease picky eating in children under 10 years.
The research found that a range of factors contributed to a child’s likelihood of being a fussy eater. Pressuring a child to eat, offering rewards for eating and very strict parenting all negatively influenced fussy eaters. On the other hand, a more relaxed parenting style, eating together as a family, and involving a child in the preparation if food all reduced the likelihood of fussy eating.
“Some families have kids who turn their noses up at any vegetable. Others are dealing with kids who dislike certain textures or colours of food,” said lead researcher, Laine Chilman.
She added, “Some of these preferences relate to a child’s characteristics or personality, which are difficult to change, if at all. But others are external factors that could help reduce fussy eating in kids.”
“Eating together as a family, with siblings, and having a single meal at a regular time all helped reduce food fussiness. As did getting the fussy child involved in the meal, either by helping to choose the menu, or helping to prepare the meal.”
“Yet if fussy eaters were allowed to eat in front of the TV, or if they were rewarded for eating certain foods, these behaviours negatively influenced picky children.”
University of South Australia researcher Dr. Ann Kennedy-Behr says stress can contribute to fussy eating.
“When you have a child who is a picky eater, it’s very stressful for a parent or carer—they’re forever questioning whether their child is getting enough nutrients, enough food, and often enough weight gain,” Dr. Kennedy-Behr says.
“Yet it’s important to understand that being overtly anxious or worried can actually contribute to increased picky eating.”
“Avoiding getting cross and limiting any negativity around mealtime will be benefit everyone.”
“Positive parenting, no matter how difficult it can be in certain situations, is the best step forward for fussy eaters.”
Top tips to help a fussy eater
Set a good example: a family that eats together has better eating habits
Schedule regular mealtimes: regular mealtimes reduce levels of stress.
Get kids involved with food preparation: familiarity and a sense of control can help
Try to have one mealtime: a separate kids’ sitting encourages fussy eating
Turn the TV off: focus on food, not on screens
Try to keep mealtimes calm and stress free: will be a better experience for all.
Remove rewards or bribes or punishments for fussy eaters.
In a recent study done by Pensylvania State University, researchers found that filling half a child’s plate with fruits and veggies helps increase the amount of fresh produce that they eat.
There is a concern that children are not eating the recommended daily amount of fresh fruit and vegetables. This research was designed to test two strategies for encouraging preschoolers to eat more fresh produce. The first was simply adding 50 percent more to fruit and vegetable helpings at all meals during the day. The second was exchanging 50 percent more fruits and vegetables for an equivalent weight of the other foods. For example, if they added 50 grams of veggies to the midday meal, they would subtract 50 grams of the meat component.
Findings were that adding more fruit and vegetable side dishes resulted in children eating 24 percent more veggies and 33 percent more fruit compared to the control menus. Substituting fruits and veggies for some of the other foods on the plate resulted in kids consuming 41 percent more veggies and 38 percent more fruit.
Barbara Rolls, director of the Laboratory for the Study of Human Ingestive Behavior at Penn State, said the results suggest ways of helping encourage healthy eating.
“When deciding what to feed kids, it’s easy to remember that half of the food should be fruits and vegetables,” Rolls said. “If you start seeing that you’re serving too much and have more waste, you could cut back the higher calorie-dense food while adding more produce. Experiment and have some fun trying different fruits and vegetables to see what they like and so you can serve meals with a sensitivity to their personal taste.”
Guidelines have encouraged people to fill half their plates with fruits and vegetables but this strategy had never been tested in young children. “For most foods, kids will eat more when served larger portions, so we wanted to test whether increasing the amount of fruits and vegetables that are served over five days would increase intake,” said Liane Roe, research nutritionist at Penn State. “We also wondered whether substituting produce for other foods would increase intake more than simply adding extra fruits and veggies.”
As a caution, Rolls said that even though the study was successful in getting preschoolers to eat more fruits and vegetables, the majority of the children still didn’t eat the recommended daily amount of vegetables for their age group—about a cup and a half—although they did reach this target for fruits.
The researchers said that in addition to the strategies in the current study, there are additional things parents and caregivers can do to increase intake.
“Serving fruits and vegetables as a first course or snacks when kids are hungry can boost their intake, as can incorporating them into mixed dishes,” Rolls said. “For example, you can blend some cauliflower or squash into a sauce for macaroni and cheese or add fruit puree into a brownie or cake mix. You don’t decrease the palatability of the dish, but the kids are eating more produce. You should also encourage them to eat the whole veggies on their own, as well as incorporating them into other foods.”
The study was recently published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
The answer to this question might be a resounding ‘yes!’. Katie Taylor (mother, professor and researcher of learning with technology) recently contributed to The Conversation. During a Zoom class organised by her 6-year old’s teacher, she noticed that his hands would begin to fidget with anything at hand, such as Legos and crayons.
This kind of behaviour in a classroom might suggest that he cannot pay attention, or is ‘off task’. Is this so? Is it perhaps more correct to understand that his fiddling actually helps him to arouse his mind and keep it focused on the task ?
The answer could be that sitting in front of a computer screen interferes with or completely detaches people from our ability to take in and process sensory information. To learn most efficiently, our minds depend on the movement of our body parts, at best involving working with a variety of tools, being in dynamic places and having others nearby.
The body’s role in thinking
Most notably, remote learning, as happens using Zoom classes, assumes that as long as the mind is engaged, it’s fine if the body stays still. But this argument is flawed.
Research has shown that the body needs to be interacting with the world of learning before the mind can become engaged. That’s why learners working with a variety of tools and materials during a learning activity are better able to grasp abstract concepts, such as fractions, for example.
To ask learners to sit still while performing their work actually puts an unnecessary load on the mind. It requires them to concentrate on quieting their bodies, which are seeking out ways of making sense of the incoming information. This causes conflict.
Get ready to move
Some learners will remain online for much of the rest of the academic year—due to health or other concerns—while others will return to classrooms. Both models of school can better incorporate the body to support learning. The following tips are for educators designing remote or in-person classes, though parents and learners can also encourage and help sustain an active classroom culture.
Normalise movement during classes, not just during movement breaks. For instance, make a neighbourhood walk the mode of inquiry for the day’s science lesson. Ask learners to bring back their observations to the whole group.
Begin every class with time to assemble different materials to think and work with, such as notebooks and different kinds of paper, various writing and drawing instruments, putty and blocks. Incorporate interaction with these tools throughout the lesson.
Encourage and use gestures. If online, invite camera use, and back away to give students a wider view.
Build in time for learners to tune in to how their body is feeling as a window into their emotional state.
Provide opportunities for iteration, practicing a task in different contexts and with different tools and people that engage the body in different ways. The content or big idea stays the same, but shift how and with whom learners engage.
Consider the classroom as extending out into the school grounds and neighbourhood. Allowing learners to experience a familiar location in a different way, with their classmates and teacher, can evoke new perspectives and thoughts.
Teachers, parents and learners can all change their expectations of what being “on task” looks like. Walking, running or dancing may not seem related to a particular task at hand, but these activities often help people do their best thinking. Remember that activating the body activates the mind, so don’t mistake the motive to move.
Original text by Rhya Strifling, University of Kentucky. Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain
There are so many picky eaters around these days that most families almost expect one or two of their children to develop a fussiness about food. Some even show a reluctance to eat at all. This makes mealtimes very stressful for everybody – and can spoil those special occasions too, when sharing a festive meal should be such a joy.
Sometimes parents misunderstand a child’s seeming avoidance of food. You might believe a child is picky about food because they don’t seem to eat much but this might related to a child’s age and growth rate. Children aged two to five have a slower rate of growth and therefore have smaller appetites. It’s normal for most children to eat small amounts of food at one meal—sometimes just a few bites—and then a larger amount at a later meal or the next day. Most children have an inbuilt ability to regulate how much to eat and usually do not starve themselves. If their growth curves are within normal limits, you shouldn’t worry about how much they are eating.
One of the best ways of preventing a child from becoming a picky eater is to make mealtimes enjoyable with a variety of small portions of healthy foods. Mealtimes should be relatively short, and children should not be expected to finish all the food you put on their plates. Some children react to this by refusing to eat if you try to force them, punish them or bargain with them. The more you try to make them eat, the more they might begin to refuse.
Provide your child with a variety of healthy food choices in small, tablespoon-sized portions, then relax and focus on your own meal. The less focus you put on what they eat, the better they will eat. If they say they don’t like what you have prepared, tell them that’s OK and give them the same food options as the rest of the family, then return to your own meal. They will either eat, or catch up at the next meal.
Encourage your child to try new foods from an early age. A child might try a new food 10 to 15 times before developing a taste for it. Don’t be afraid to try new foods, but don’t get frustrated if your child rejects them. The best way to get children to try new foods is to eat them yourself. Be sure to give them lots of praise and encouragement for taking even the smallest bite of a new food.
To help children eat better at mealtimes, follow some of these tips:
Try to limit beverages prior to meals.
Schedule snack time instead of letting them “graze” throughout the day.
Serve as a role model because children to feed themselves by experimenting with new foods.
Sit at the table as a family to demonstrate healthy eating choices and habits.
