The most accessible form of self-expression is creativity. Nothing is more pleasant and meaningful for your child than the ability to express themselves freely.

A study shows that creativity is linked to emotional intelligence in a good way, so you should help your child be more creative. Moreover, the ability to be creative supports mental growth.

Best Activities for Toddlers to Improve Creativity

The toddler years are ideal for developing your child's creativity because this is when learning is at its peak. Learning is easy, and it stays with them for life. What your child will learn in these years will establish them as adults for the rest of their school years and adulthood.

So, here are some creative activities for toddlers that you can apply.

1. Get Your Toddler to Play

Play promotes physical growth as early as infancy by encouraging sensory exploration and motor skill development. Your child gets better at playing and practicing basic physical skills. It lets them do more and more complicated physical tasks. 

One of the best things about play is that it helps children become more social. When your toddler plays, it enables them to interact with other kids and learn how to get along.

Through pretend play, your toddler learns to consider each other's needs and understand that everyone has different ideas and values.

2. Motivate Your Children to Do Novel Things

Even if your child wants to try something different but is unsure if they will be good at it encourage them to try something new. They could do something more complex or advance in a skill they already have.

You can inspire your young children to place more emphasis on the creative process than the result by encouraging them to take creative risks. So, even if a project doesn't go as planned, they learn to try something different and think about it from a different angle.

Giving your child big chunks of independent time throughout the day strengthens their creative spirit. It feeds their soul more than anything else.

3. Embrace Music, Singing, and Sound Activities With Your Child

While engaged in other play activities, toddlers frequently begin singing to themselves. Also, they love to shake and bang things!

When your child sings, they are more likely to use words, which helps them learn to remember things. As they sing the words, they can act them out. 

Children's emotional development can benefit from music as well. Also, these age-appropriate activities for toddlers can get them interested in sound and music at a young age:

• Let your child play with instruments. Tell your child what the music tools are and how they sound. Then show them how to play them.
• Make some instruments at home. For example, you could use a plastic container and a wooden spoon to make a drum or put sand in a plastic bottle with a tight lid to make a shaker.
• Sing simple nursery rhymes or silly songs you made up while changing diapers, helping kids in the bath, etc.
• One of the toddler projects you can create is having karaoke on road trips.

4. Make Time for Art With Your Toddler

One of the toddler development activities is art. Set aside a certain amount of time every day to do creative things with your toddler. After all, creativity affords your child possibilities for experimentation, inventiveness, and freedom of expression. This could happen before bedtime, after breakfast, or at any other convenient time.

Inspire table activities for 2-year-olds and encourage them to let their art be free. Children are drawn to making their art with so many options for materials. Here are a few art activities for toddlers:

• Using crayons, pencils, pens, chalk, etc., to draw.
• Painting, such as painting with your fingers, bubbles, brushes, sponges, etc.
• Cutting, tearing, pasting, and collaging

Art kits and other store-bought activities can be fun sometimes, but they should be treated differently. Coloring books are not creative in the least. For the art projects for toddlers, let your child start with a blank canvas and let their creativity kick in.

5. Use Drama to Help Your Toddler Be More Creative

Dramatic play is an excellent way for toddlers to discover the world around them by mimicking the actions they witness adults taking. For example, your toddler might talk into a spoon like a cell phone. Or, they could put things in a bucket like they're at the grocery store.

Role play helps toddlers make sense of their own lives by letting them act out what has happened to them. For instance, when your child plays with dolls, they might pretend to feed, dress, and put to bed their "baby." This craft for 3-year-olds helps them understand other people.

6. Read Together with Your Child

Reading can enhance your child's creativity and problem-solving ability. Set a daily goal to read a picture book or chapter book together.

This activity will improve their language, vocabulary, problem-solving abilities, imagination, and emotional intelligence, among many other talents.

Further, reading allows you to ask your child questions and build their critical thinking skills. Create a tale, ask your child to anticipate the finale, or have your child "read" you the story from the photos.

7. Let Your Toddler Take Part in Dancing

Most toddlers start moving and dancing on their own. This can also become one of the toddler group activities they can share with other children. 

Dancing will help your child learn about their feelings, bodies, and the world around them through dance. They can walk, balance, jump, gallop, and hop as they dance to the music.

Here are some ways to get your child dancing:

• Turn some music on. Try out various musical genres or songs from multiple cultures.
• Have a warm-up with your child. You could, for instance, crawl, roll, jump, skip, or spin around. Step back a little at a time and let your child take the lead.
• Offer your child some dance accessories. This could be anything your child likes, like a spoon and a box to beat, sticks, a toy ukulele, or a puppet you made yourself.

Consult with Sang Pediatrics!

Ask your child's physician if you want more information about the best activities for enhancing creativity.

Sang Pediatrics can address your concerns about your child's health and well-being. Call (559) 268-1737 or book an appointment online, and we will be happy to assist you and take care of your child's health.