ABSTRACT
The idea of preconventional artwork suggests that preschoolaged children can be creative. Their creativity is, however, different from that of older children, adolescents, and adults. Preschool children do not produce works of art or solutions to problems that help and assist other people; their creativity is typically authentic self-expression. This self-expression is typically original-after all, it is preconventional-and fitting, at least given the child’s own situation. What is most important is that even the things they do are not intended for wide audiences, young children do things that satisfy the two requirements of creativity: originality and usefulness. This is probably the most apparent in studies of young children’s play. Schmukler (1985), for instance, emphasized children’s play and imagination as bases for later creative skill. As she put it:
Play [is] an activity which is not obviously goal-directed, such as recreating and acting out what the child has observed. Imaginative play refers to the introduction by the child of settings, times, and characters which are not immediately present in the environment and, since it makes something out of nothing, can be seen as creative expression with important developmental implications. (p. 75)
Russ (1994), Ayman-Nolley (1992), and Smolucha (1992a, b), and Singer and Singer (in press) also tie the play of young children to creative potentials. Daugherty (1993) agreed that young children have creative potentials, but she felt these potentials were expressed in private speech. Matuga (2004) also saw creativity in the private speech of young children, as well as in their drawings.
