What Are Health Benefits of Craft and Art Projects for Kids?

76 percent of parents in the UK stated their kids engage in art club activities regularly outside of school. Active participation of kids in arts and crafts projects — colouring with crayons, designing miniature statues using clay, or folding papers creatively to make origami shapes — can be supportive to the development of young children. The benefits of kids’ engagement in art and craft projects are enormous, ranging from health, physical, to social benefits. In this write-up, we will focus on the health benefits of these projects for children. 

Development of Motor and Coordination Skills

One of the benefits of the introduction of arts and crafts, particularly drawing and making use of a pair of scissors, or painting, very early in a child’s life in classrooms is that it can help develop their fine motor skills. Arts and crafts also offer young children an opportunity to learn new things such as holding a pencil or a paintbrush well. Kids find simple sewing as well as crafting projects fun and fascinating. Therefore, creating art and designing crafts can be beneficial for the enhancement of motor and coordination skills in young children.

Speech and Language Skills Improvement

Telling one action, colour, and shape from the other is one of the first things toddlers are taught. Arts and crafts can be of immense help to kids’ speech and language development since parents and teachers can employ them as a tool for making the vocabulary of young children rich.

The goal in mind here is to assist the child in building their vocabulary with enough words to describe artwork styles. When a kid creates something new, they are eager to share it with others. Thus, it is advised that parents encourage their child to discuss what they have designed with them and the method used for the design as this practice will help enhance language and speech skills in the child.

Visual Learning and Memory Development

The health benefits of arts and crafts aren’t just limited to enhancing the motor and language skills of a child, but also improving their awareness of various patterns and figures. Tasks like sculpting or jewelry-making require visualizing as well as memorizing complex designs.

An Outlet for Stress

Most parents and teachers don’t always consider the fact that kids can experience stress too, just like adults do. The reason for this oversight is simple: Unlike adults, young children do not have any family they support. But kids can sometimes find school work or certain social situations overwhelming. This could result in unhealthy conditions such as sleep deprivation, or mood swings.

Thus, engaging in tasks that serve as an outlet for stress can be helpful.  The import of arts and crafts in this regard is noteworthy. Arts and crafts projects can serve as a means of distraction for toddlers, giving them a chance to release pent-up emotions.

Furthermore, arts also help in reducing cortisol, the stress hormone, in the body. The lower the cortisol levels in one’s body, the lower the stress one experiences.

Boosts Self Esteem

Kids’ engagement in arts and crafts projects instills a sense of pride, of achievement in them, which in turn can boost their self-esteem. Having good self-esteem is important for balanced mental health. Poor self-esteem can hurt the mental and even physical health of an individual.

For instance, if one’s mental health is poor, it can lead to a lack of self-care or poor eating habits. This underscores the import of creating arts and crafts in boosting self-esteem, and consequently, mental and physical health. 

In conclusion, arts and crafts offer many health benefits to young children including the development of motor and coordination skills, boosting self-esteem, serving as a stress outlet, and improving visual learning practices, as well as memory and language skills.

Personalizing crafting projects is also crucial as it offers kids a channel to express themselves, to create something unique on their own, and to have fun creatively. This practice will help kids develop a sense of self-worth, it’ll make them feel good knowing that they are able to do stuff that can be credited to them. As parents, you can personalize arts and crafts projects by adding a tag or a label with your child's name on it.

About the author: Anna Carter Short is a freelance writer and a seamstress of more than 5 years. Annabelle is a mother and she loves making crafts with her two children, Leo (age 10) and Michelle (age 11). When not working, she’s spending time with her family or putting pen to paper for her own personal pursuits. Annabelle writes for several sewing/crafting publications and magazines.