The Significance of Creative Arts in Early Childhood Education

This essay explores the significance of creative arts in early childhood education, addressing the value of these arts and how they can be expressed using relevant pedagogical practices. It begins by defining creative arts and summarizing the concepts and skills associated with dance, music, visual arts, media, and drama. The essay then details the benefits of creative arts in early childhood, including fostering cognitive, social, physical, emotional, and language development. It highlights how art activities support muscle development, social learning, and the expression of emotions, and how different art forms like dance, visual arts, drama, and music contribute to children's skills and understanding. The essay also identifies and explains the pedagogical principle of Reggio Emilia, emphasizing its support for children's sensory, intellectual, and aesthetic development. The essay concludes by emphasizing the importance of creative arts in stimulating children's creativity, imagination, and overall development, making it a central component of early childhood education.

Running head: CREATIVE ARTS
Creative Arts
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author note

1CREATIVE ARTS
Creative arts refer to the activities that help in engaging the imagination of the
children with the help of art, music, dance or the theatre. Creative arts help in engaging the
children across the various domains- cognitive, social, physical, emotional and the language.
The activities are generally open-ended and they help in fostering the divergent thinking in
the children (Sinclair, Jeanneret & O’Toole, 2012). During the stage of early childhood,
socio-emotional along with the cognitive abilities of the children can be heightened with the
help of the appropriate programs along with the activities that can help in the complete
development of the individuals. This essay discusses about the concept along with the skill of
the strand of creative arts. This essay elaborates on the advantages along with the importance
of arts within the framework of early childhood education. This essay elaborates on the
pedagogical principle which can help in supporting the sensory, aesthetic along with the
intellectual development of the children.
The young children approaches the creative arts that acts as an active expression of
the experiences. The creative arts helps in providing the outlet for the young children that
helps them in exploring and gaining control on the emotions. In the event of the child care
providers planning the creative activities the overall development of the children can be
achieved. According to Wright (2012), the art activities can help in supporting the muscle
development along with the eye-hand coordination of the children. The children by making
use of crayons, paintbrushes along with the markers can learn about motor control. The
children working together in the arena of art learn the art of sharing and interacting that helps
them in evolving as responsible individuals. It can help in the social learning of the children.
The young children are able to learn names of the colours along with the shapes with the help
of the creative arts activities. It has been argued by Duffy (2006) that the creative art helps
the children in representing the experiences which cannot be verbalized by them. Putting
value on the creativity of the children helps in raising the self-esteem of the children. The

2CREATIVE ARTS
active imagination of the children finds expression with the help of art. The active
experimentation can help the children in the area of invention that proves to be useful for the
children.
The children can gain various kinds of skills with the help of the different strand of
the creative arts like dance, visual arts, drama, music and media. The children learn regarding
special awareness with the help of activity of dance. It can help the children in avoiding the
conflicts within the school and the playground (Dinham, 2013). The children learn the
listening skills with the help of dance and it helps them in carrying out the communication
with the other people. According to the Australian curriculum, students can celebrate the
human experience with the help of dance and it can help in inspiring the students
(Earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au., 2019). The visual arts provide children with the opportunity
of making the choices and understanding effect of the choices. It helps in providing
perspectives to the children that helps in the process of weighing of the alternatives. The
visual arts help in prompting the sense of the discovery in the children that helps them in the
area of learning. The drama teaches the young children in taking the command of the
situation that helps them in overcoming the fear of the public speaking. It imbibes confidence
in them which helps them in learning from the mistakes that are made by them. According to
Australiancurriculum.edu.au. (2019), the young children learn dedication with the help of
practice that helps in delivering the final result. Drama teaches the children regarding non-
verbal communication as the children exhibit the emotions with the help of their body
language. During drama, the students use their body along with the movement for exploring
and depicting the imagined worlds (Australiancurriculum.edu.au., 2019). The learning of
music can help the children in understanding about rhythm and the scales that can help them
in the process of recognizing of patterns. It helps the children in understanding various areas

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of the mathematics. The musical instruments introduces the young children to that of the
basic physics (Acecqa.gov.au., 2019).
The children can gain various kinds of benefits with the help of arts that makes the
significance of arts absolute for the children. The motor skills of the children can be
developed with the help of creative arts that can help the children in gaining control over their
movements (Australiancurriculum.edu.au., 2019). The children can be introduced to the
number concepts along with the classification by taking recourse to creative arts. Music can
play an integral role in accelerating the brain development of the children. It can help them in
the arena of language acquisition and proves to be of benefit to them in enhancing the reading
skills. The skills that the students gain by participating in music prove to be of great use for
them and it helps them in understanding the cultures and the contexts. Learning the art of
playing the instrument helps the children in language acquisition and pave the path for better
educational outcome (Dinham, 2013). The creative arts can reduce the stress among the
young children especially among the economically disadvantaged people. Poverty can lead to
the stress and stress can contribute to poor health of the people. Creative arts can help in
building the self-esteem of the children and it provides them with the autonomy that helps
them in expressing themselves in the right manner. The children learn how to work together
in a group and they give feedback to each other that helps them in improving themselves. The
children learn how to receive the criticism in a positive manner that can help them at a later
stage of their life (Sinclair, Jeanneret & O’Toole, 2012). Creative arts helps in building
creative side of brain and the children can learn important things with the help of play.
The importance of the arts within the framework of early childhood education lies in
the fact that it can help in the development of the ideas of the children. It can aid the children
in their growth and stimulate the creativity in the nurturing soul of the children. In the event
of the children being exposed to the artistic activities, brain is stimulated with the help of the

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sounds and the movements. It can increase the neural connections as it provides opportunity
for exercising of the brain. The children who are under the age of three can derive greater
benefit as they are highly sensitive to that of the external stimuli. The artistic activities can
help in fostering the intellectual development of the children. It can be instrumental in
increasing capacity of the memory along with the attention that can prove to be beneficial for
the children. It can increase the concentration of the young children that can help them in
focussing on their studies. The creative arts can be useful in develop the reading skills in the
children that can help them in performing better in the subjects of maths and that of science.
The children are introduced to the new vocabulary along with the concepts with the help of
the creative arts (Australiancurriculum.edu.au., 2019). It can help in the process of generating
the memories of the children that can help in enriching the intellect of the children. The
children can acquire the social skills by taking recourse to the creative arts. It can promote the
self-esteem of the young children that can help them in expressing themselves fully. The
children learn working together when they have to work within a group
(Australiancurriculum.edu.au., 2019). The children get the opportunity of interacting and co-
operating with that of the other children along with the adults. The children can serve the
other people in the event of involving themselves in the creative arts and they learn how to
become more tolerant with the help of the creative arts. The children can become more
consistent by engaging themselves with the creative pursuits (Dinham, 2013). The rehearsals
help the children in learning the value of the time that helps them in meeting the goals. The
children can become more aware of the surroundings along with the culture by involving
themselves in the creative arts.
The pedagogical principles can be taken resorted to that can help in supporting the
sensory, aesthetic along with the intellectual development of the young children. Creative
learning can help the children in discovering artistic skills along with the interests that can

5CREATIVE ARTS
help in the development of their mind. The young children develop the ability of enquiry with
the help of the creative arts that can help them in realizing their complete self. The
pedagogical approach of Reggio Emilia can be taken resorted to that can help in the physical
and the mental development of the children. This educational philosophy perceives child as
being strong and capable that can cater to the development needs of the children
(Acecqa.gov.au., 2019). This approach does not view the children as the empty vessels that
requires knowledge but rather as individuals having the creative potential that can help in
their growth. The daily learning of the children can be facilitated with the help of the creative
forms like dance, drama and music. The children are provided with the different avenues with
the help of the creative arts that helps them in structuring and constructing things along the
right lines. The children can exhibit their understanding in relation to the various aspects of
life with the help of drawing and the dramatic play. The process-driven approach can act as
the authentic way that helps in the implementation of the quality arts education programmes.
The Australian Curriculum lays emphasis on the process-driven approach that provides
opportunities for reflection of the children. It can help in encouraging the self-directed learner
in the children that can help the children in making the full use of the opportunities that they
get in life. The children can build on their strengths and the skills with the help of the creative
forms of art that can help them in developing themselves.
Creative arts prove to be useful in engaging imagination of children and it helps the
children in expressing themselves fully. It helps the children in the area of exploration and
helps them to control the emotions. The children by taking recourse to dance can learn the
skills of listening. Creative arts assist children in making crucial choices and it helps in
improving perspectives of children. Pedagogical approach of that of Reggio Emilia can help
in the physical along with mental development of children. It conceives the children to be
strong and they are thought of to be capable that helps in their development.

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References
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g_the_early_years_learning_framework_for_australia.pdf
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https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/the-arts/visual-arts/
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Duffy, B. (2006). Supporting creativity and imagination in the early years. McGraw-Hill
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Earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au. (2019). Why play-based learning? - Early Childhood
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Sinclair, C., Jeanneret, N., & O’Toole, J. (2012). Education in the Arts (ed.). South
Melbourne. Victoria: Oxford University Press.

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Wright, S. (2012). Children, meaning-making and the arts (2nd edn). Frenchs Forest.