They discovered a direct correlation between the inten- sity of these early verbal experiences and later achieve- ment. Risley and Hart attributed the meaningful difference to the increased interaction—more storytelling, reading and parent-child discussions—that typically takes place in more affluent households.


Firing Imagination


“Our culture is so linear and lingually driven that it often doesn’t tap into the vastness of a child’s imagination,” ob- serves Anne Austin Pearce, assistant professor of communi- cation and fine art at Missouri’s Rockhurst University. Pearce often works with school children through library events that couple art and storytelling. “Also, there’s pressure to measure results in a culture that tends to label you either a winner or a loser, but art is not quantifiable in that way; art allows kids to develop ideas through the creative process that they can’t do any other way.


“When kids are drawing, they often talk as they are do- ing it,” she says. “You can then engage in a different kind of conversation with kids, just letting things happen and asking open questions. Kids tell their own stories.”


Confidence-Building


Kids that study and perform at least one of the arts such as dance, playing an instrument or acting in a play, “... will have an edge up that’s so critical as an adult,” concludes Verneda Edwards, executive director of curriculum and instruction for the Blue Valley School District, near Kansas City. “Kids not only benefit academically by engaging in the arts, they also have the ability to get up in front of people and perform. That builds increasing confidence.”


Judith Fertig celebrates the craft of cooking at AlfrescoFood AndLifestyle.blogspot.com.


natural awakenings September 2011


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