Children are naturally curious and will explore things in their environment. Novel things engage children and hold their attention longer, so they can come up with new ideas on how to manipulate the new objects.

Curiosity and creative exploration are fuelled when children encounter new things that behave in unexpected ways. Studies with infants and preschoolers also demonstrate that children’s curiosity is fuelled by uncertainty and conflicting evidence.1 One study found that when infants ssaw something surprising, such as a ball passing through a solid wall, they focused more on that object and learned more about it by testing relevant hypotheses about the object’s surprising behaviour, such as by banging the ball to test if it was solid.

Hence, caregivers who give their children time to explore novel objects, or expose them to familiar environments with some changes, can help develop their creativity and problem-solving abilities.

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1. Stahl, A. E., & Feigenson, L. (2015). Observing the unexpected enhances infants’ learning and exploration. Science, 348(6230), 91-94.

Encouraging ambiguity and uncertainty, and exposing children to novelty, facilitates creative thinking and problem-solving.

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2. Honig, A. S. (2003). Beauty for Babies. Early Childhood Today, 17(7), 22–25.

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