As children grow up, besides their usual everyday activities, arts and crafts form an essential part of their formative years. In schools these days, keen importance is placed on helping children discover and explore their creativity through arts and crafts projects, primarily.
Arts and crafts do not only bring out the creativity children; health-wise, there are other benefits that children can gain from arts and crafts to boost their physical and mental health.
If you do not already know, then this article is for you. Find out how arts and crafts projects can benefit children’s health.
Aids the development of a child’s motor skills
This is the most fundamental benefit of arts and crafts that virtually everyone knows. Arts and crafts activities such as painting and drawing can help your child develop his/her motor skills. Some of these arts and crafts projects are usually fun for kids, and whatever children enjoy doing, they excel at it.
For instance, having a children draw a favorite cartoon character, or sew a dress for her baby doll will effortlessly bring out their creative side, and activities like these immensely benefit their development.
Art creation helps children with learning how to draw lines and shapes, and how best to hold drawing tools at an early stage. It also helps with the development of a child’s coordination skills.
Helps relieve children of stress
Children get stressed too, and this is something a lot of us do not consider. Some parents can be unaware how much school work and the environment can weigh down a child.
Stress has the same effect on every human being regardless of age. It could range from lack of sleep to mood swings. Finding a way to ease off the stress can make a lot of difference.
This is where you should consider arts and crafts. Arts and crafts can be a perfect distraction for a child from whatever he/she may be worried about. A child can also express his/her emotions through arts.
For instance, a child that suffers bullying at school can make a drawing of a child standing up to his/her bully. Distractions like arts and crafts for a stressed child can help reduce cortisol levels in the body. Cortisol is the stress hormone, and the lower it is, the less stressed a person feels.
Boosts children’s self-esteem
Besides stress, another factor that can affect mental health is self-esteem. If your child suffers low self-esteem, it could take a toll on their mental health..
Once your child starts showing signs of low self-esteem, getting him/her to engage in arts and crafts projects can be a great way to give them a boost. Let your child feel like he/she is creating something unique that no one else can build. Give him/her the freedom to be creative. You can give guidance instructions, but you should allow your child to explore his/her creativity and make the project a personal one. Once the project is complete, you can personalize it by adding a tag or label with the name of your child, so he/she feels good about creating something special.
Helps improve brain health
Creating arts and crafts requires putting the brain in conjunction with other parts of the body to work, and this has its benefits.
Creating art gets all the parts of the brain and body system in sync with one another. This establishes a connection of sorts, and these connections form an integral part of the child’s life.
Hand and eye coordination with the brain is one coordination skills that if mastered, will help the child throughout their life and through adulthood.
Dealing with serious illness
As mentioned above, arts and crafts can be quite the distraction a child needs from worry.
If your child has a chronic illness, getting engrossed in an arts and crafts project can take his/her mind off his/her adverse circumstance for a while.
This can also be related to helping reduce the stress levels in a child. A sick child will undoubtedly be stressed, and art projects can help lower the risks of the child getting nervous.
Annabelle Carter Short is a freelance writer, blogger and seamstress of more than 5 years. When not working, she’s spending time with her family and friends or putting pen to paper for her own personal pursuits. Annabelle is a mother and she loves making crafts with her two children, Leo (age 9) and Michelle (age 11).
