The importance of art in education
ADvTECH Group • July 1, 2022
Here’s why your child should still partake in visual art, dance, music, or any other forms of art and 4 of the major benefits of creative expression for your child:
Creativity and critical thinking
A major benefit of art is that it helps your child access and exercise their creative ‘muscles’ in a way that helps them to think out of the box. Even by finding a way to express a feeling with paint or write a poem in a certain rhyme or rhythm, your child is finding out how to think creatively to overcome challenges. Having to use their imagination to think critically builds strategic thinking and problem-solving skills, which are going to be much needed in the future where interpersonal skills will be in demand.
Engaging in art also gives your child an opportunity to explore creative expression. To do this, they need to be able to identify, analyse and understand their feelings, which in turn gives them a deeper understanding of who they are, what motivates them, and how to deal with difficult emotions.
Fine motor and visual skills
We use our fine motor skills in everyday tasks, big and small; even being able to write an essay or get dressed in the morning requires strength and skill of the hands, fingers, and wrists. During creative activities, holding a paintbrush, playing a musical instrument and even (for younger kids) beading and tracing helps to strengthen a child’s fine motor muscles.
Additionally, activities like drawing, painting, sticking, and cutting help to hone your child’s spatial skills – they learn to process visual information, and this helps them develop awareness of themselves, how they and objects around them fit into the world, and even meaningful patterns. What’s more, being able to see and interpret what they see helps your child to think critically and make decisions. This is a skill that working strictly with text and numbers can’t teach.
Resilience and focus
Simply creating art gives your child opportunities to overcome challenges, which is key in developing resilience. Things like standing on stage to act or dance, even to play an instrument also helps to develop self-confidence and resilience, as your child is being forced out of their comfort zone. Resilience is really all about being able to bounce back from life’s challenges, and is very important in developing emotional intelligence – read more about this here.
Your child also needs to pay attention to detail during art activities. This is because they need to focus on each step of the process, whether it’s drawing something on paper, learning a part in a play, or playing a tune on an instrument. Having to do this helps them develop the skills needed to focus on a lesson or task, understand process as well as analytical thinking.
Teamwork and accountability
Art is a collaborative exercise and creative expression gives your child an opportunity to share and cooperate with others while creating something beautiful. Drama, dance, music often means working with others to achieve a common goal, such as a performance. This not only teaches them the importance of teamwork, but also interpersonal skills, how to compromise, and how to take responsibility for their part of a bigger picture.
These are all important benefits of art, but studies have also shown that the skills developed through creative expression spill over into other areas of your child’s schooling career and adult life, so the importance of art in education really is invaluable.
