Expressive Art's Impact on Child Development: Strategies for Teachers

This assignment delves into the crucial role of expressive art in child development, particularly within a kindergarten setting. It emphasizes how expressive art, encompassing various forms like dance, drama, creative writing, and music, provides children with a vital avenue for expressing emotions and fostering cognitive growth, especially when language skills are still developing. Drawing upon the perspectives of researchers such as Vygotsky, the assignment highlights the importance of imaginative play and the teacher's role in guiding children's artistic endeavors. The author, a kindergarten teacher, shares practical strategies, including the use of colors, music, and interactive activities like plays, to enhance learning across different subjects. The assignment concludes by underscoring the benefits of expressive art in reducing stress and promoting holistic development, while also outlining plans for implementing innovative teaching methods in the future, such as integrating visual aids, props, and educational visits to further enrich the learning experience.

Running head: EXPRESSIVE ART - DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN
EXPRESSIVE ART - DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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EXPRESSIVE ART - DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN
It is believed that art washes away the dirt from the soul, and there is an artist in every
child. I, being a teacher of a kindergarten, always try to introduce expressive art as a medium
for children’s learning. Expressive Art is the visionary connection and interaction between all
usual art forms.
Children do not have language proficiency in expressing their feelings, but they do
have a voice. Expressive art helps in exciting a child’s visions and guide them to decide how
they should employ their senses in a proper way. Expressive arts consist of actions such as
dancing, drama, creative writing, drawing, writing poetry, sculpting, making music and
photography. Expressive arts therapy can help them in a situation where it is not possible
for the children to describe their anger or bad feelings in words ( Forrest-Bank et al., 2016).
By putting their emotions in drawing, dance and poem, they can express it and make
others understand it. According to researchers, the expressive arts also nurture the cognitive
capacity development for the children.
Participating in imaginative play activates the use of kids’ imagination power, As per
the view of Lev Vygotsky, imaginative play allows kids to learn exciting things and make
them open to a new world of learning (Vygotsky, 2016). In this process, a teacher will
provide students with extra care and guidance while the student is trying to learn something
new with the other children of the same age (Zavershneva & van der Veer, 2018). Children’s
artistic natures can be developed in indoor play space with the support of paper, paints and
watercolours (Bento & Dias, 2017). I always help children in choosing the colours and
crayons for their drawing and keep a note of colours they are choosing to paint them and try
to understand their creativity. Singing and dancing, listening to music, playing instruments,
helps in the development of the creative mind. Musical rhythms increase the four-
dimensional reasoning capacity in the children. Rhymes and recitations help in the growth of
memory and language proficiency.

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EXPRESSIVE ART - DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN
I keep pushing children to learn new things adopting expressive art method and plan it
accordingly. I believe children mind is itself an imaginary world, and they see everything in a
dramatical form at that age. That is the reason in my action plan for the future classes I am
going to use pictures, props and maps during history and geography lessons. Another plan is
that during their maths lesson, I will use the marshmallow math process and will tell them
that they can eat from the marshmallow bag if they give the proper answer to my maths
question. I will try to show them cartoon movies and autobiographies to make them
knowledgeable about different subjects. I will arrange small interactive plays during my class
hours and convince my students to act in them as per their own visions. I will convince my
school to conduct educational visits for the children they can get a chance to visit nearby
places of importance. To educate them about environmental problems, I will come up with
new topics using poster and placards. To promote their participation, I will always try to act
according to their wish like reading a book of their own choice, to decide the participation I
will use chits containing their names and will select from the chit and give them proper
recess.
After a brief analysis, I can say that expressive art is beneficial for the social and
physical development of a child. Expressive arts helps in reducing stress and speed up
physical and psychological healing. In the future, I will try to adopt and implement new
teaching methods which can be helpful for the student’s development.

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EXPRESSIVE ART - DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN
Reference:
Bento, G., & Dias, G. (2017). The importance of outdoor play for young children's healthy
development. Porto Biomedical Journal, 2(5), 157-160.
Forrest-Bank, S. S., Nicotera, N., Bassett, D. M., & Ferrarone, P. (2016). Effects of an expressive art
intervention with urban youth in low-income neighborhoods. Child and Adolescent Social
Work Journal, 33(5), 429-441.
Vygotsky, L. S. (2016). Play and Its Role in the Mental Development of the
Child. International Research in Early Childhood Education, 7(2), 3-25.
Zavershneva, E., & van der Veer, R. (2018). Lev Vygotsky. Encyclopedia of Evolutionary
Psychological Science, 1-4.