THE INFLUENCE OF THE FAMILY ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF CREATIVITY IN CHILDREN
The family fulfills the functions of the primary group, enabling direct contact, personal connection, developing emotions, encourages the development of love as a need, and we can say that the family is an irreplaceable environment that encourages the development and emotional sides of the child's personality, thus creating a balanced personality.
In relations with parents, the child gains security, developing a sense of belonging to the community. The care, love and tenderness that a child receives from his parents gives him a sense of trust - in himself and others. Also, nowhere like in the family, there are so many opportunities to belong to the community without losing the individuality of the person.
In the broadest spectrum of requirements related to the basic assumptions and conditions for the successful development of giftedness and creativity in the family, the following stand out in particular:
1. positive family relations (mutual love, understanding and respect)
2. positive human qualities of parents and their authority (parents' attitude towards social reality, towards other people, towards work)
3. mandatory minimum general and pedagogical culture of parents and correct understanding of the role of educators and tasks of upbringing and education by parents ("parents as educators"
they must have basic knowledge about the goals and tasks of upbringing and education, as well as the conditions, ways and means by which they are realized, and it is also very important that they understand that they are responsible for the upbringing of their children before the social community and that their duty as an educator is one of the most important and responsible)
4. knowledge of the child's psycho-physical development and his needs and possibilities (parents must know the basic laws of the child's psycho-physical development, because only in this way can they contribute to the optimal development of their child and avoid the discomfort that can arise from overestimating or underestimating the child's abilities, which is especially important when giftedness and creativity find themselves in disproportion between the unrealistic wishes of the parents and the real possibilities of the children)
5. favorable material and health-hygiene conditions (the family should have an adequate living space where the child will have his own corner for work and rest, that there are conditions for maintaining personal hygiene and living space)
6. favorable conditions for the cultural life of the family (cultural level of the parents, the possibility of using funds to raise the general culture in the family).
Parents' educational styles and the development of children's creativity
Speaking about the influence that the family, that is, the parents to the greatest extent, have on the development of the child's personality and his creativity, it is certainly necessary to deal with the parenting styles of the parents and the way in which their influence is manifested. Cohesion represents the degree of commitment, help and support that family members provide to each other. Openness is the extent to which family members are encouraged to act openly and directly express their feelings, while conflict is expressed through the amount of open displays of anger, aggression, and conflict among family members.
The parenting style of parents can be defined as relatively consistent ways of behavior of parents in establishing relationships with children. Speaking about the parent's educational style, it is necessary to point out the fact that the parental couple, that is, the persons who make it up, do not have to have the same approach to education, and therefore will not have the same educational styles.
We distinguish three educational styles:
1. authoritarian , within which we can distinguish a warm-limiting and a cold-limiting educational style
2. democratic , which we can consider to be warmly directing
3. liberal , within which we distinguish a warm-indulgent and a cold-indulgent educational style
Children who come from families where a democratic style of upbringing is applied are significantly more cooperative and friendly than children brought up in stricter conditions. Democratic style affects the development of independence, creativity and other positive personality traits of children, i.e. students, and contributes to their better functioning at school and, more broadly, in social life.
Emil Kamenov believes that children who have been brought up democratically are active and socially extroverted, and that their originality, curiosity, and constructiveness are noticeable, because the way of control actually frees them, allowing them to explore and experiment, and as such they occupy a favorable status in the group. On the other hand, we have parents who apply an authoritarian and liberal educational style in raising their children. Children who come from such authoritarian families are quiet and withdrawn. With them, conformity is developed at a high level, and thus curiosity, originality, imagination, and creativity are reduced. Children whose parents are characterized as authoritarian are the best adjusted.
As far as the liberal educational style is concerned, regardless of which dimension we are talking about, the main characteristic is giving freedom to the child. Parents with a warm-indulgent liberal educational style do not set limits for the child, believing that this hinders the child and his development and that setting limits will only frustrate him. If he grows up in such an environment, the child will be creative, with a developed positive attitude towards the world, will not tolerate authoritarian groups and institutions. However, these children do not develop a sense of responsibility, since their parents fulfill all their wishes.
On the other hand, cold-indulgent parents are characterized by indifference to the child, his wishes and needs. This attitude towards the child leads to the children becoming aggressive.
Based on this, we see that the democratic educational style contributes the most to the development of creativity in children , but also that creativity can be developed in children whose parents apply a liberal educational style.
Successful parenting strategies have been found to include:
spending time with children so that they benefit from it;
understanding children by listening and talking;
teaching children from an early age by providing a stimulating environment;
providing the child with an adequate "model" to look up to;
strengthening children's good habits;
communicating expectations to children through discussion with them;
watching television (educational programs) with children;
challenging children by setting goals based on their abilities;
building the child's self-confidence and self-confidence (praise and encourage him);
encouraging children to become creative and productive
Parents can become more successful in assessing and identifying the creativity and giftedness of their children, but cooperation with the kindergarten/school is needed to obtain specific information and criteria for assessment and identification.
Supporting imagination and creativity in childhood (both in the preschool period and in elementary school) can be seen not only as a desirable prerequisite for the development of an individual's creative orientation and the expression of creative behavior in adulthood, but also as a driving force for further social development.
Pedagogue Nevena Aleksić