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Creativity is a dynamic and iterative process (mental, material, and/or social) of making new connections, exploring, and transforming the world in new and meaningful ways. The early years of childhood are important for the development of creative potential. It is during these years that children first begin to actively create new knowledge through their experiences in the world. Creativity is typically defined as a combination of divergent/experimental thinking—generating new ideas—and convergent/evaluative thinking to narrow them in, resulting in novel products that are meaningful to the creator and also, often, to the surrounding community. This creative process is a core element of all learning experiences, because children learn most effectively when they play an active role in constructing their understandings. Children's early Creativity has been shown to predict later Creativity and academic success.
There are many pathways to Creativity, however in childhood, Curiosity often sparks exploratory behaviors which can lead to creative thinking and solutions. Often fostered through play, exploration is a key component of children's Creativity because it encourages them to come up with multiple possible solutions to a problem. In fact, it can be argued that for children, play, and imaginative play is often novel, surprising, and original—core aspects of Creativity. And so, play in and of itself can be considered a creative output, or a product of how children think and feel. Similarly, Creativity often emerges from Collaboration during sociodramatic play, where children play and build off one another in a sort of improvisational method, generating novelty.
Children's environments across home and school play a pivotal role in encouraging Creativity. In order to allow Creativity to flourish, children's environments must allow for flexibility—with open-ended tasks, unstructured conversations, respect for the learner, and independence. Providing ample time and comfort and expectations of ambiguity and failure, can support a learner's natural Creativity. Some research suggests that children with ADHD may experience more frequent “mind wandering” (a shift of focus away from a given task to other unrelated thoughts), which has been shown in some cases to lead to increased Creativity. In addition, creative learning is also enhanced by carefully-designed guiding structures or scaffolds, which ensures that learners are moving towards their learning goals through the creative process. As children develop and acquire more knowledge and expertise, they need less structure and guidance in this process.
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