Intervention in Creativity With Children Aged 10 and 11 Years: Impact of a Play Program on Verbal and Graphic–Figural Creativity

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This work presents the assessment results of a play program designed for stimulating creativity in children. The design used was quasiexperimental pretest intervention-posttest with control group. The sample used included 86 children aged 10 and 11 years, 54 experimental and 32 control, distributed in 4 groups. Before and after the program, 2 assessment methods were administered: 7 verbal and figural tasks from Torrance's Tests of Creative Thinking and direct judgment by experts who assessed a creative product. The program consisted of a weekly 2-hr intervention session throughout the school year. The program's activities were intended to stimulate verbal, graphic–figural, constructive, and dramatic creativity. Results of the analyses of variance suggest a positive effect of the intervention, as the experimental participants significantly increased their verbal creativity (originality) and graphic–figural creativity (resistance to premature closure, originality, elaboration, creative performance). The program produced a significantly greater change in the experimental participants who showed a low level of creativity before the intervention. The effects of the program were similar in boys and girls.