The arts and the humanities provide critical tools for children and youth as they move through various developmental stages. Preschool children, before they are fluent in language, are powerfully affected by music, visual arts and dance. Preschoolers can paint, color, mold clay, sing songs and dance in order to convey feelings and ideas. These activities encourage young children to express themselves and learn through the use of nonverbal symbols.
Teenagers struggle with issues of identity, independence, competency and social role.
The arts help to mediate this confusion. Creative art activity allows the adolescent to gain mastery over internal and external landscapes by discovering mechanisms for structure and containment that arise from within, rather than being imposed from outside. The artistic experience entails repetition of actions, thoughts or emotions, over which the adolescent gains increased tolerance or mastery. While providing a means to express pain and unfulfilled longings during a distinct maturational phase, the arts simultaneously engage the competent, hopeful and healthy aspects of the adolescent's being. 9 Similarly, the humanities encourage youth to read, write and express themselves in a disciplined way.