Childhood Creativity

Creativity takes root in childhood. For the child, life is a creative adventure. The most basic explorations of a child's world are creative exercises in problem-solving. They begin a lifelong process of inventing themselves. In this sense, every child reinvents language, walking, love.

"The kernel of creativity," says psychologist Teresa Amabile, "is there in the infant: the desire and drive to explore, to find out about things, to try things out, to experiment with different ways of handling things and looking at things. As they grow older, children begin to create entire universes of reality in their play."

Our experience of creativity in childhood shapes much of what we do in adulthood, from work to family life. But if creativity is a child's natural state, what happens on the way to adulthood? The psychological pressures that inhibit a child's creativity occur early in life. Parents can encourage or suppress the creativity of their children in the home environment and by what they demand of schools. Most children in preschool, kindergarten—even in the first grade—love being in school. They are excited about exploring and learning. But by the time they are in the third or fourth grade, many don't like school, let alone have any sense of pleasure in their own creativity.

Amabile's research has identified the main creativity killers:

• Surveillance: Hovering over kids, making them feel that they're constantly being watched while they're working.

• Evaluation: Making kids worry about how others judge what they are doing. Kids should be concerned primarily with how satisfied they—and not others—are with their accomplishments.

• Competition: Putting kids in a win/lose situation, where only one person can come out on top. A child should be allowed to progress at his own rate.

• Overcontrol: Telling kids exactly how to do things. This leaves children feeling that any exploration is a waste of time.

• Pressure: Establishing grandiose expectations for a...