Sparking the imagination is more important than ABC and 123 drills.

Most parents put a premium on jump starting their baby’s numeracy or literacy. But child development experts will tell you, it is more crucial to let them start exercising their creativity at this stage. They’ll get to their letters and numbers, which are of course important for school, but hone in on their creativity first.

Creativity will help your child become more flexible and resilient. It also practices problem solving skills. This is especially important for our 21st Century kids! You can actually start honing creativity as early as birth to the toddler years. We’ll tell you why and how.

Sally Goldberg, PhD, is a professor of early childhood education at Nova Southeastern University in Florida, and author of Baby and Toddler Learning Fun. She explains that, “Creativity is important because we can’t predict what challenges our children will be faced with over a lifetime. We can only provide kids with the tools to work through them.”

Creativity stems from curiosity and exploration. It seems we are hardwired for this unique human characteristic. Children are born curious explorers! Notice how they love to touch everything and get into all sorts of situations? When your baby tries to figure out how to make his toy squeak, he is actually using imaginative thinking. He’s also using his imagination when trying to guess where your zooming toy spaceship is going to land.

Creativity is harder to spot in babies than in toddlers or preschoolers, but as soon as he can grab a rattle, you can start encouraging his flights of fancy. Too much restriction can hamper these natural creative inclinations. Drilling baby with flash cards also tends to dull the fanciful mind. So how can we start nurturing a baby’s natural creativity? Experts recommend that you try the following:

Let him figure things out.

Baby can’t get the rattle to work? Give him time to discover how to do this on his own, before helping out. The more success babies have in figuring out how the world works on their own, the more likely they are to feel they can tackle the next problem. This also boosts their confidence. Hey, I can think of my own creative solutions!

Let them explore.

Don’t keep them in their bouncy seat or exersaucer for too long. Babies need to be on their tummies or in different positions with access to varied objects too. To make sense of the world, babies need the chance to experiment. Given them the chance to move, touch, hear and even smell. Let them manipulate things. Oh, if I push the ball it goes towards mommy!

Keep it simple.

Fancy toys with bells and whistles or the latest educational “it” toy are not required for exercising some baby creativity. In fact, research suggests that simple toys like balls and blocks can inspire the imagination better. Notice how the toy’s box is often more interesting than the fancy toy itself? The box provides more open-ended — more interesting — play!

Tomorrow, we’ll have creativity-building tips for toddlers.

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