The Bernard L. Pacella, MD Parent Child Center

Resources: Information for Parents

Children's Creativity:
Lessons from child rearing and applicability to innovation in organizations

Based on talks given to the Johnson and Johnson Corporation, Mount Sinai Medical Center,
and The New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute.

References used in the preparation of this material are listed at the end.

Children's Play is serious stuff and not a “waste of time.”

When children play imaginatively they are constantly innovating. This may not seem intuitive to adults, who may think of play as “silly” or a “waste of time” in contrast to the “serious” work that is needed in life. However, as I will demonstrate, the creative act of an adult is very similar and, in fact, it is a continuation of the creative activity of children, particularly when children are involved in imaginative play. In both the adult who is engaged in a process leading to an innovation as well as in the child who is in the midst of imaginative play, they are not merely making a product, even a good product, but they are creating something that clearly has the characteristic of originality. It is something that is new, original, or inventive.

THIS DISCUSSION FOCUSES ON FOUR MAIN TOPICS:

1a. Children's Play: Part of Life and 1b. Imaginative Play

2. Characteristics of Highly Creative Children

3. How Children's Minds Close Up

4a. How Parents and Teachers Can Foster Creativity and 4b. How Managers and Supervisors Can Foster Creativity

References on Creativity

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