ABSTRACT
A programme of individual or group work and arts-based activities such as movement, music, dance, drama, imaginative play and games are helpful to maintain a child's motivation and enhance his sensory motor and early cognitive development. Arts-based activities, imaginative play and games lend them themselves to creativity. Creativity involves mental and physical processes which create new ideas or new links between current concepts. Most children need no encouragement in creative play: they copy activities done by adults, make up stories, use real objects, but soon replace them with invisible pretend play. Creative activities can have a positive influence on the health and well-being of children and young people. Bungay and Vella-Burrows undertook a review of the effects of participation in creative activities on the health and well-being of young people. They found that the children and young people achieved increased self-esteem, sense of achievement, social skills and positive behavioral changes when they participated in activities such as art and dance.
