When young children are exposed to any artistic activity, their brain is stimulated from sounds, colors, movements, and sizes. This process is of immense benefit for young children, especially below the age of five years, because the brain is maturing and is highly sensitive to exterior stimuli. Through artistic tasks in a school setting, intellectual development is fostered, which comes with great benefits. According to Plows (2014), some of the benefits accrued range from the development of reading skills, especially in technical subjects such as science and mathematics. Also, the art-making generates memories and images that supplement the intelligence. The relevance of children's expression through art-making boosts self-esteem as they acquire social skills and assists them in expressing themselves.
In the case of the child's artistic drawing, teachers or parents could easily ascertain whether a child is cheerful, creative, or sharp. Through assessing a child's painting, one can observe that children can incorporate different elements in the art, such as figures and color contrast, to come up with a relevant piece of art. In one incident, the child was able to draw and paint an image of me as a teacher in a design that can be well understood (Plows, 2014). Similar to usual free play, young children learn by exploring and practice with different art media. Plows (2014), reiterates that art is always regarded as a unique area of children's play.
Through engagement with diverse arts early enough in early childhood development, there is an influenced achievement of the present-day learning outcomes. Besides, art as a continuous learning activity supports the attitudes and behavior that reinforce the future learning of toddlers, infants, and young children (Plows, 2014). Knowledge gained through artwork, whether drawings, paintings, or visual arts, nurtures children's complete (holistic) development at the same time cultivating artistic knowledge and abilities.
I can now better understand that artwork builds children's self-esteem as it presents opportunities to express what they are feeling and thinking. My thoughts on self-esteem concur with Richard (2007) assertion that children engaging in artistic activities with peers, the feedback received attracts self-esteem as it helps them learn to expect criticism and praise from external sources. Children making art and enjoying the work of the arts of other people from different cultures is instrumental to child development as a whole (Terreni, 2010). Any activity that revolves around art-making requires that a child makes a decision and undertake a self-evaluation. In most cases, the learning process entails thinking about what appeals and what other people perceive as pleasing.
Role of a teacher
In a setting of early childhood, an educator is supposed to admit that arts education is a practice that instills creativity. As Terreni (2010) reports, a teacher who supports arts helps children to explore the interests and identities of the world around while continuously advance holistically. Being an early childhood educator means being an ultimate promoter for the growth of infants and toddlers through holistic development. Plows (2014) pinpoints that the teaching practice demands that one encourages aesthetic appreciation and learning in an environment that is characterized by free-play artistic surroundings with directed support if required (Gibbs, 2005). Fundamentally, an early childhood art teacher needs to enforce a learning environment that is a relaxing, exciting, and enjoyable subject that permits growth in artistic potential.
Teachers can encourage art through follow up experiences that take an insight into a child's work by asking them about their inspiration about their work. (Richards, 2007)confirm that art is a language that permits people to express and develop their emotions and ideas. The artistic activities are complete processes that allow people to advance and stimulate their creativity while cultivating their interests in various issues in contemporary society (Ebert et al., 2015). When young children are engaged in artistic activities, they stimulate their brain, sounds, colors, movements, and sizes. In the long-run, the brain is exercised, strengthened, and neural connections increased.
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