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Boost your child’s creativity with fantasy movies and video games

Boost your child’s creativity with fantasy movies and video games
According to researchers from Oxford Brookes University ‘playing in make-believe worlds requires imagination to conceive of the world differently to its current reality, which is also necessary to think creatively’. © Shutterstock

A creative child is a happy child. As a parent, know how you can boost the innate curiosity of your child in a scientifically proven manner.

Written by Jahnavi Sarma |Published : November 14, 2019 8:55 PM IST

All kids have an inborn creativity. It is only because of rigidity and social conditioning that this gets suppressed as a child grows up. Strict parenting, our education system and lack of playing space can effectively kill off a child's creativity. But, as a parent, you must take special care to ensure that this does not happen. But how do you do this? Let us see how you can initiate a few scientifically proven ways to boost creativity of a child.

Encourage your child to gesture more

Researchers at the University of York say that encouraging children to use gestures as they think can help them come up with more creative ideas. According to them, children naturally gesture when they think of novel ways to use everyday items. And, the more they gesture the more ideas they come up with. They say that children spontaneously gestured and that greater gesturing was associated with a greater number of creative ideas. This study was published in the journal Psychological Science.

Put on a Harry Potter movie to boost creativity

A study at Lancaster University says that parents who feel guilty about letting their young children watch too many fantasy movies on TV can now relax. Researchers have noticed a boost in creativity of children who watch fantasy films like Harry Potter. They reached this conclusion while doing research on the educational benefits in exposing children to magical content like witches and wizards, Santa Claus, the Easter bunny and the tooth fairy.

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Gaming can boost creativity too

Michigan State University researchers say that instead of trying to totally keep a child away from video games, try to let them play. But let them do so within limits. Researchers say that both boys and girls who play video games tend to be more creative, regardless of whether the games are violent or nonviolent. Thy came to this conclusion after studying almost 500 12-year-olds. They saw that the more kids played video games, the more creative they were in tasks like drawing pictures and writing stories. But the use of cell phones, the Internet and computers was unrelated to creativity, researchers say.

Get your child to play outdoors

Researchers from University of British Columbia say that risky outdoor play is not only good for children's health but also encourages creativity, social skills and resilience. They say that that children who participated in physical activity such as climbing and jumping, rough and tumble play and exploring alone, displayed greater physical and social health, creativity and resilience.

Encourage fantasy play

Fantasy play may set your child's creativity racing. According to researchers from Oxford Brookes University 'playing in make-believe worlds requires imagination to conceive of the world differently to its current reality, which is also necessary to think creatively'. They came to this conclusion after interviewing 70 children between the ages of 4 to 8 years.