Writing is one of the most important skills a child can learn and indulge in as a developmental habit. From a young age, most children are taught to engage their minds and creativity through reading and writing. Creative writing is not just fun but a good tool to help broaden a child’s imagination and cognitive thinking.
Creative writing is also a good form of entertainment for children. Indeed, given a topic that interests them, most children tend to enjoy creative writing even more than watching the television or playing video games. When they’re watching television, they are just absorbing information that somebody else has put together. However, when they’re writing, they are becoming creators themselves. It is amazing to watch a child who has been able to turn ideas and feelings into interesting stories and successfully written it down. You can see their faces light up in excitement, you can feel the joy, enthusiasm and excitement such child feels, you can also see the sense of achievement and enduring confidence in that child.
Studies have shown that children who engage in regular extra-curricular activities tend to do better socially and academically than the ones who don’t. Creative writing is one of the best and fun extra-curricular activities for children. A regular writing practice gives children confidence and a positive mindset.
Creative writing for children is very beneficial in so many ways:
Children develop better planning skills, organisation and idea implantation. Putting together characters and developing an idea or feelings into a story all requires brilliant organization, planning and tactfulness, children who have been able to develop and demonstrate these skills during creative writing would also make use of them in other areas of their lives now and in the future. They would be able to follow the right steps to making good decisions and choices.
They become open to confidently and freely communicate with people especially adults, their write ups become more orderly and their communication becomes clearer, because they have developed the ability to translate their thought processes in a cohesive and articulate manner.
Creative writing improves the quality of their reading and writing. It does not only improve their writing but also the quality of reading. Creative writing plays an important role in a child’s literacy development. They enjoy writing more, having to choose their own subjects and methods of writing; they also develop better reading habits from reading their own stories. As they grow in creative writing they are gradually able to see similarities and differences between books of distinct writing styles and contents using it to form their own ideas and structures too.
They develop the ability to dissect and confront challenges logically. This helps to stimulate and broaden their imagination, foster creativity and sharpen their ability to make rational decisions that aids personal development and makes them valuable assets in the society. They are also encouraged to think outside the box and to view the world around them in a whole different way.
When children come up with characters and story lines they naturally start to explore their feelings, hope, fears and values. They start to put themselves in other’s shoes and as a result develop qualities like ‘Empathy. They can now understand and share another person’s experiences and emotions. They are more sensitive to other people’s feelings.
Creative writing helps children to develop their communication and persuasion skills. The art of writing and creating something that is believable to a reader, requires a lot of thought, and the use of words to pass across a message. Children learn how to find which words are the best to use in expressing their ideas. They learn how to convince people to understand and align with their points of view.
Creative writing can help children discover their inert qualities and true identity. Especially children who have previously been experiencing some challenges of living in this stressful world we are in where bullying, peer pressure and family issues are rampant. Creative writing could be a form of therapeutic remedy for these children.
Creative writing also helps children to improve every other aspect of learning a language, such as expanding their vocabulary, improving their spelling, improving their punctuation, and their grammar. They also improve their comprehension skills, as they create their own stories, it helps them to understand other stories they read too. This happens in a fun way, such that they don’t even realise it. This is a valuable long term skill that will help children later in life as they begin to write professionally in various capacities.
Parents, schools, teachers, educators and the society at large have a very important role in helping nurture and develop this ability and passion in children. There are many creative writing clubs that have helped such children sharpen their writing skills and are still working to get many more passionate kid writers on board. The power of writing can never be underestimated, as it plays a pivotal role in developing our children’s intellectual capacity, national growth and advancement. So, encourage your children to write, to be creative, to use their imagination, and then praise them when they do.
As the saying goes, “The pen is mightier than the sword’’ (Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1839). Parents and educators should always encourage children of all ages to develop the skill of creative writing with regular practice, and also regular reading. Register them for creative writing programmes and clubs, enter them for writing competitions, and give them access to a wide variety of fiction and non-fiction books. Together, we can raise the next generation of confident and excellent writers and authors.
