Art and Toddlers

Looking At Art With Toddlers

Teaching young children to appreciate art is not the daunting task that it appears
to be. At a very young age, children are quite capable of having an aesthetic
experience, whether it be the mixing of different textured foods on the high chair
table top or visually interacting with a mobile suspended over the crib. Without realizing it, young children are afforded many opportunities to engage in an aesthetic experience.

When children express preferences for colors, shapes, sounds, tastes and
textures, they are making aesthetic choices. Long before children can speak,their responses to shapes, sounds, and other necessary phenomena around them establish their personal personalities and their styles of interacting with the world.

Every young child expresses awareness and preferences about
the world in different ways. While one toddler sways rhythmically to
music in a television commercial or a song on the radio, another
returns time and time again to look at a particular visual image in a
picture book. Aesthetic experiences can enhance cultural sensitivity, promote language development, and improve the quality of young children's own artmaking.

For aesthetic development to occur, children need experience with
beautiful environments within the school and home, exposure to fine art and
opportunities to discuss art and beauty with thoughtful adults. (Feeney &
Moravcik, 1987).

Written by:
Katherina Danko-McGhee, Ph.D.
Early Childhood Art Education Coordinator, University of Toledo
Early Childhood Consultant to the Toledo Musem of Art
And
Sharon Shaffer, Ph.D.
Executive Director, Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center
Smithsonian Institution