Molding Young Minds - 4 Benefits of Creating with Clay

Molding Young Minds: 4 Benefits to Creating with Clay

You can roll it, stretch it, and mold it into practically any shape imaginable, but creating with clay holds benefits beyond just the creative kind. Without even realizing it, while your young artists are molding their masterpiece, they are also molding and enhancing their personal development. Here are 4 benefits to creating with clay:

1. It is Therapeutic

With its moldable consistency, playing with clay can be a calming source of stress relief, similar to the effects of holding a stress ball. On a deeper level, artistic activities open the brain’s reward pathways. What does that mean? Any time your child is crafting, they are regulating their thoughts, feelings, and actions through awakening that part of their brain.

Hands rolling clay

2. Creating with Clay is Sensory Play

Feel the soft texture and see the bright shapes and colors, when it comes to sensory development, creating with clay is the perfect craft to engage the senses. Integrating the senses into your child’s play routine results in cognitive development. Learn more about the benefits of sensory play on our blog.

Child cutting clay

3. It Develops Fine Motor Skills

With endless opportunities of shapes to create, choosing clay as a crafting medium is a great way to develop fine motor skills. When your child uses their little hands to roll, squeeze, and form shapes, they are actively refining their fine motor skills. It also improves dexterity and hand-eye coordination.

Child with a pottery wheel

4. It Inspires Creativity and Helps Build Creative Confidence

Give your child clay, and their creativity will do the rest. Playing with an open-ended craft encourages imagination and promotes young minds to be creative. It can also be an outlet for children to physically express their emotions through their art. When the project is done, they will feel proud of the masterpiece they have created.