Why Is Imagination So Important to Children and How to Nurture It

Nurturing imagination and creativity in children is essential for healthy development. Take a look at these quick tips to help encourage creativity and coax the imagination.

What is Imagination?

According to the Webster (A highly unimaginative resource to find definitions, I know), imagination is:

“The ability to form a picture in your mind of something that you have not seen or experienced; the ability to think of new things.”

Imagination cannot be given, it can be encouraged, but it cannot be taught from scratch. We were all born with imagination. After the age of three or so, the child begins to understand the difference between his or her imagination and reality, yet will enjoy using their imagination and creative thinking. All too often, adults will try to prevent the child from becoming ‘lost’ in the imagination. Although, this was seen more predominantly in the stricter and more rigid eras (pre-2000), thankfully we are seeing a change in the way that parents are dealing with a child’s vivid imagination. And here’s why that is important:

Creative Thinking for Child Development

According to Einstein, (or at least the endless internet quotes), “Imagination is more important than knowledge”.

Before a child is able to pursue ingenuity or thinking outside the box, a child needs to develop their creative thinking. When a child is involved in imaginative play, his or her mind is developing. Imagination helps a child to develop self-confidence and increase his or her problem-solving abilities. The horizons are expanding, and they are learning to express themselves and engage different parts of their brains. This short explanation does little to express the importance of creativity and imagination for a child’s development, so take a look here and here if you want to discover more.

How to Encourage Imagination and Creativity

Simple things like brickfans.com, Playdough or even playing with dirt and water (to bake a ‘cake’), splashing in puddles and even simply spending time engaged in nature can be great tools.

Here are some other practical examples for encouraging creativity:

Invent Scenes and Scenarios

As your child becomes involved in a ‘make-believe’ scenario, he or she is slipping in and out of different roles. This means that the thoughts are being organized differently with each role, helping to encourage verbal development and social skills among other things.

Art Activities

This is an obvious example. What better way to ignite a child’s creativity than through art activity? Art encourages the expression of the imagination- this is incredibly important and should never be overlooked. People (yes, even adults) can have a strong imagination, but if they lack the skills to communicate this, then they can become frustrated and withdrawn. Art acts as a bridge, connecting the invisible to something tangible.

Limit Screen Time

This is so important. Especially in this age of constant information through screens telling us what to think, how to think, what to do and how to do it. And even what to feel. Please, parents, it may be difficult if handing your child a screen if the only solace you have, but limit screen time for children. Yes, they can be a learning tool but this is largely passive learning, and it should be balanced out with activities where your child can be involved kinesthetically. It is crucial that you encourage your child to engage all of his or her senses at some point during each and every day.

There are literally thousands of resources on this subject, and you can find many different activities and ideas to help you help your child. Even if you are deadset (in fact, especially if you are deadset) on your child becoming an academic, then you need to encourage his or her imagination and creative thinking.