Providing toddlers open-ended materials to use while working collaboratively with other peers facilitates language, social skills and creativity. A study of Japanese children found that playful children only become creative and artistic when they have the chance to play in a group as much as they want to.

In cooperative activity, all the children are working towards a common goal. Ideas are brainstormed and compounded so that more creative solutions are arrived at collaboratively. Another researcher also noted that creativity is highest when members of a group collaborate to achieve a given task.

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2. Torrance, E. P. (1998). The Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking Norms—Technical Manual Figural (Streamlined) Forms A & B. Bensenville, IL: Scholastic Testing Service.

3. Taylor, S.I., & Rogers, C.S. (2001). The relationship between playfulness and creativity of Japanese preschool children. IJEC 33, 43–49

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