Exploring Creative Pursuits
“Creativity is the power to connect the seemingly unconnected”- William Plomer
Raising a child with special needs and getting him acquainted to a world of self-belief is challenging. The strength that drives parents to give their children happiness, and the hope and healing amidst harsh circumstances, is miraculous. Creative pursuits enable them to connect with their untapped competencies.
For most children with intellectual disability, delays in visual processing, language processing, and comprehension are likely to lead to difficulties in sustaining the required level of attention for learning. The first approach should be to increase the child’s attention by involving them in a high interest project such as creative arts or expressive art that may include drawing, painting, sketching, gardening, and cooking. This requires them to focus for an extended time, which stimulates the mind and energizes the body. Whether they take up a new instrument or experiment with paintbrushes, a person with disability is given a tool of self-expression and joy. Methods like art therapy, music therapy and colour therapy are known to work wonders on the state of mind of these people. Whatever be the mood, an outlet to express their emotions is exactly what people with disability need as it makes them feel in control of their lives as they paint their emotions onto a silent, non-judgmental canvas.
When introduced at an early age, creative projects not only enhance their social functioning but also make a remarkable enhancement in their academic and personal life. In fact, people with disabilities who continually work with creative projects can do away with stereotypes and perform better in the community and the workplace. This helps them to create an edge over others. Hobbies or creative pursuits can be very therapeutic. These help in maintaining their social and emotional health, cognitive growth, moral and character development by adding more balance and significance to their life.
Everyone has areas of strength and weakness, and its incumbent upon the adults who live and work with children to strive towards supporting all the dimensions of their well-being. It’s important to nurture creativity as it helps to overcome challenges, fosters resolve, inquiry, new perspectives, independence, positivity, confidence, and ingenuity.
Certainly, parents and teachers are right to focus on academics, including remediation, accelerated learning opportunities, or other special education programming modifications or accommodations, as required. All that can and should occur—while also paying attention to children’s creative potential with the focus on following:
- Socializing such as community or volunteer work.
- Puzzles, to increase concentration, expand creativity and assist in delaying possible cognitive disabilities.
- Owning and caring for a pet
- Art therapy is popular because it is unconditional, subjective, and decidedly infinite. This allows people with disabilities to express themselves in their own unique manner without any social, physical, or attitudinal obstacles.
- Personally, cooking has been a very engaging activity in my daughter’s life, who has been diagnosed with Down Syndrome. She dreams of owning a café someday. We never know these interests can ignite a fire in their minds.
Whatever be the area of interest of the child, it’s important to first identify it, and then extend their attention span to retain an interest in working with these activities. Parents also get an opportunity to socialize with their child and to gain a further understanding of the child’s interest. It’s only when we are successful in diverting them towards creative pursuits that we can bring a prominent change in their all-round development. We must always remember,
“Everybody is talented because everybody who is human has something to express” –Brenda Ueland
Nisha Tandon
