Creativity is a trait that is often shared by those with ADHD.
One of our readers, artist and sculptor Robert Toth, sent me a wonderful article written about a man named E. Paul Torrance. “I came across the article in a Readers Digest back in 1962 when I was 21 and in my first year in the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Art,” writes Toth. “The article lifted a great pressure off me, and I corresponded with Torrance off and on for over 20 years. I admired his insight and lifetime devotion to creativity.”
The article Toth refers to was written by John Kord Lagemann and includes excerpts from interviews with Dr. Torrance and his book, Guiding Creative Talent. Dr. Torrance spent his life working to help others recognize, accept, value and develop their creative personality. He believed that IQ tests alone are not an accurate measure of real intelligence, as they do not address creativity.
According to Dr. Torrance’s research, most children begin life with a “valuable creative spark” that is unfortunately diminished by the time they reach fourth grade. “It is not that parents and teachers deliberately squelch creativity; rather, they fail to recognize it.”
How Do You Know If Your Child Is Creative?
Torrance believed that by observing your child at work and play, you may detect creativity.
Below are the key signs of creativity, according to Dr. Torrance and quoted directly from Lagermann’s interview:
Curiosity
“The child’s questioning is persistent and purposeful. He/she digs under the surface. As a baby he/she handles things, shakes, twists and turns them upside down. Later he/she takes things apart to see how they work. He/she experiments with words and ideas, always trying to wring new meaning from them.”
Flexibility
“If one approach doesn’t work, the imaginative child quickly thinks of another. To older boys trying in vain to throw a rope over a high branch to make a swing, an eight-year old suggested, ‘Why not fly a kite over it and then pull up the rope with the string?’”
Sensitivity To Problems
“A child is quick to see gaps in information, exceptions to rules, and contradictions. A father tells of reciting Mother Goose to his inquisitive four-year old: ‘You try something simple and straightforward like ‘Tom, Tom, the Piper’s Son.’ Right away he starts interrupting: ‘Was Tom about my age? If Tom was my age, how did he carry a pig? If the pig was so small, how did it kill the goose? What’s a calaboose? You mean they put little boys in jail?’”
Redefinition
“Children can see hidden meanings in statements that others take at face value, and see connections between things that to others seem unrelated. It was a creative child who said, ‘Eternity is a clock without hands.’”
Self-Feeling
“Children are self-directive and can work alone for long periods -- on their own project. Merely following directions bores them.”
Originality
“Children have surprising, uncommon ideas. Their drawings and stories have a style that marks them as their own.”
Insight
“Children have easy access to realms of the mind which noncreative people visit only in the dreams. As one five-year-old told Dr. Torrance at a birthday party when she put her hand into a grab bag: ‘This is how I get ideas – just reach in and scrunch around in my mind [un]til I feel like pulling something out.’”
Though Torrance died in 2003, his work continues at the Torrance Center for Creativity & Talent Development at the University of Georgia.
If your child displays these creative insights and abilities, work hard to value and nurture these talents and wonderful gifts.
Related Reading:- Profiles in ADHD: Artist and Sculptor Robert Toth
- The Creative Energy Behind ADHD
- Nurturing Your Child's Strengths
- Helping Your ADHD Child Develop Positive Peer Relationships
- The ADD Child vs the ADHD Child
- Parenting Children and Teens with ADD/ADHD
- Improving Communication with Your Child
- Tips for Maintaining a Scream-Free Home
Source: John Kord Lagemann. Guiding Creative Talent: Excerpts from interviews with E. Paul Torrance. Readers Digest 62.
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