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The Gazette asked Kelly Ross Kantz, a professor of early childhood education at Hood College in Frederick, questions about the importance of creative play and good ideas for stimulating creative play during the winter months.

Kantz also manages Hood College's Onica Prall Child Development Laboratory School, a preschool for 3- and 4 year-old children. Established in 1929, the school's setting allows for the testing of existing teaching methods and for the creation of new ones.

Faculty from the college's department of education staff the laboratory school and students of early childhood education serve as teaching interns.

Kantz responded to The Gazette's questions via e-mail.

— Katherine Mullen

What is the difference between play and creative play?

The most significant difference between play and creative play is the opportunity for children, of any age, to completely control the materials, rules and outcomes. In other words, there is great flexibility in what children can do with what they are provided. They can make it into anything that they would like and then take it from there.

Some classic examples of play might include sports, such as soccer or video games. In both of these cases, especially with the video game, the "player" is provided with a resource with somewhat limited ways it can be used. Rules are in place for the interaction that results. The outcome, scoring resulting in a win or loss, doesn't vary much during each play time.

Paints, on the other hand, can become anything envisioned or experienced by the "player". The same thing is true of play dough, various collage materials or recyclables, even cardboard boxes and pots and pans. Props that facilitate creative drama are also good examples. Children generally love pretending to be adults, or something they have imagined or seen in books or movies.

How does creative play help children developmentally?

Creative play helps children develop in every way. Creative play helps children develop problem-solving skills by giving them opportunities to make things work in a way that they envision and create. It can help children develop social and communication skills because typically creative play occurs with more than one child and/or adults.

It can help children emotionally. Creative drama and other arts are generally some of the first opportunities children have to express the emotions they are experiencing. They may not yet have the ability to talk about their emotions, but they can express them through play. This can then give adults an opportunity to coach their children in expressing their emotions verbally or resolving conflict identified through the play.

Creative play also engages children actively, usually. There is an obesity epidemic in our country as a result of children not being engaged in active play, in addition to poor nutrition. With an increase in active play children watch less television or [play less] computer games.

Children get to practice the skills they learn through creative play. Children holding paintbrushes build their ability to write. Children will incorporate numeracy and literacy skills frequently in creative play as well.

Does creative play make for more creative adults? Can you develop creativity?

I'm not sure if you can make people more creative, but you can certainly stifle creativity. (This would take more research than I can do at this point.) Recent research with PET scans has actually shown a difference in the way our brains develop having been raised with television and video games versus previous generations who engaged in more creative play. [A PET scan measures important body functions, such as blood flow, oxygen use, and metabolism, to help doctors evaluate how well organs and tissues are functioning.]

Not allowing children to create what they would like or demanding that play be realistic results in children not feeling safe to create and therefore stopping this type of play. Always having play that is predictable or requiring a consistent outcome, for example giving a child a model to recreate a picture or video games that provide all components, can result in a child not being enthused or confident about creative play. Without judgment as to the critical quality of someone's creative product, I believe you can encourage creativity to the point where people are always willing and even interested in expressing themselves through a creative medium.

What are good creative play activities during the winter months?

There are countless types of creative activities in which to engage children. Of course the age of the child generally determines what they will be interested in.

Outdoors is always good for creative play, even in cold months. Making bird feeders from bagels or pine cones, peanut butter, and seeds is great. Colorful precipitation gauges from found objects can be fun too. In some cultures children play, and even nap, outdoors throughout the winter months. I've heard it said that there is no bad weather, only bad clothing for the weather.

Infants and toddlers love sensory experiences of all kinds. Let them "finger paint" with whipped cream or pudding. Dancing is a great creative activity for the little ones. However they can move to the music is wonderful! Be sure to expose them to a variety of music from classical to folk to jazz.

If you want to stay indoors, play dough is fun for all ages, but especially preschoolers. There are numerous recipes for homemade play dough that are inexpensive and last a long time. Finger paint is always interesting. Dress up is another great activity for young children. Find a few old clothes, hats, bags, or shoes. Read a story and let them dress up and act out an extension of the story.

As children get older they like similar activities, but the complexity of the activity must increase to keep their interest. Composting, or indoor gardening can be a good activity. They may like to paint, play a musical instrument, dance. Maybe they would enjoy building things with wood. Again, bird feeders are basic, but it's amazing what kids can come up with when given some scrap wood, a hammer and a few nails. Of course adult supervision, without being controlling, is necessary to ensure safety.

There are a multitude of craft opportunities for children. Take their lead. Find out what they'd like to do.

Cooking is also a wonderfully creative activity. It can include decorating cakes, cookies, or even making complete meals. While a recipe may be followed, chefs can put their own mark on their presentations. Children may want to write in their journals, develop plays, or take photos. The sky and family resources are the only limits.

Do computer-based activities and electronic toys count toward creative play? Why or why not?

There are some computer-based activities that can be considered creative play. If the child controls the materials, such as the colors or music included, then their outcomes will each be unique. Desktop publishing, Web page development and other activities can certainly be creative. Computer activities, with the exception of the Wii, are generally sedentary. This is a caution relative to the amount of time a child should spend engaged with the computer or television/DVDs.

Are children today engaging in more or less creative play compared to previous generations? Why?

Children are engaged in less creative play than people three to four generations ago. We have access to so many conveniences and resources that make our lives easier. While this has been wonderful, it has come at a cost. We have lost our enthusiasm for active and outdoor play, and our creativity has suffered. Even infants' toys now make sounds and have flashing lights, etc. Our need to improvise, pretend or make something out of something else has been dramatically reduced in the last 50 years. As a result, children have expectations that they won't have to create but items and play will be provided for them. Children used to be able to be given a few items and they could entertain themselves for extended periods of time by being creative. Now even infants have to have a DVD playing while they're riding in a car.