Why Art is Important
Emotional Health
Children’s art toys are important because they allow children to express themselves. Through self-expression children are better able to recognize and cope with their feelings. This in turn helps them to relieve stress and work through different situations that may be happening in their lives. Self-expression also allows each child to explore his or her own uniqueness.
Learning in all Developmental Domains
A really neat thing about art is that it allows children to learn in all four developmental domains.
Physical
Fine motor skills improve when children are grasping chalk, pencils, crayons, scissors, and paint brushes.
Language
Language skills improve when the children talk about their art work with friends, teachers, and parents.
Cognitive
Cognitive skills improve when children have the chance to explore counting, size, shapes, and patterns.
Social
Social skills improve when the children share and explain their art work with friends, teachers, and parents.
Ideally the art center should have playdough, chalk, crayons, colored pencils, markers, paints, easels, preschool scissors, glue, construction paper, drawing paper, stencils, and stampers with ink pads.
More Information
It is crucial for parents and teachers to recognize the importance of play for healthy child development. For more information on this topic, as well as toy safety and age-appropriate toys for children, please visit the website for The National Association for the Education of Young Children, also known as NAEYC, by using the following link. https://www.naeyc.org/resources/topics/play/toys