Very Young Creative

Paul Torrance, who extensively studied the creativity of very young children (under the age of 7), described creative behavior as, “the process of becoming sensitive to or aware of problems, deficiencies, gaps in knowledge, missing elements, disharmonies, and so on; bringing together in new relationships available information; defining the difficulty of identifying the missing elements; searching for solutions, making guesses, or formulating hypotheses about the problems or deficiencies; testing and resting them; perfecting them; and finally communicating the results” (1969, p. viii). In addition, personality traits, which may begin as inborn temperaments, can contribute greatly to the creativity of the young child, including openness to experience, independence, and nonconformity. Some creative behavior is available to everyone because it can be elicited through a variety of means, and most people are capable of everyday creativity. Unlike intelligence, research has shown that a large majority of variation seen in adult creative productivity is the result of family, school, and community environment. Further, children of high intelligence are not necessarily creative, but it is possible to be both highly intelligent and creative. This entry describes the major issues concerning creative children.

The extent to which a child is creative depends on the degree in which he or she shows novelty, displays unconventionality, diverges from what was previously accepted, and persists in exceeding previous performance. By the age of 2 or 3, children have obtained a great deal of experience in creative thinking through questioning, experimenting, and playing. Certain characteristics facilitate learning creatively: a long attention span, the capacity to organize, the ability to see things from a different perspective, and the ability to observe and listen. In addition, telling stories, creating songs, using the imagination to solve problems, observing things carefully, and exploring before formal instruction can aid in creative learning. Families that provide opportunities and resources for creative play and learning, that are open to children's risk taking, and that provide models of creative behavior can nourish creativity in young children.

Particular indicators of precocity in gifted children can be used to informally assess creativity in preschool children. Children with an unusually advanced vocabulary for their age possess a large amount of information about a variety of subjects and have an intense curiosity in something or in many things are likely to be creative. In addition, children who have a clear understanding of cause and effect relationships, strive toward perfection or excellence, are keen observers, and are interested in adult-like issues (i.e., religion, sex, race) are also likely to be creative. They are also capable of improvising with common items, engage in storytelling and highly imaginative play, have a good sense of humor, and respond to the kinesthetic or concrete. Further, they may possess exceptional abilities in creative movement and dance, visual arts, or music.

Several methods are used to identify very young creative children. Objective intelligence tests or achievement tests for specific areas are the most traditional means, but parent, peer, or professional nominations are other methods. In addition, biographical data, checklists, rating scales, observations, and performance and objective testing can be helpful. The validity and reliability of these methods vary.

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