Move it!: puppetry for creativity

This project studied the influence of kinesthetic intelligences on creativity in young children. To understand this relationship preschoolers were observed in their daycare setting during story-time over a period of four sessions. During the sessions observations focused on the children's ability to propose narratives when the teacher used different storytelling methods. The children's responses were videotaped and coded later for analysis. The coding was used to calculate the baseline Ideational Fluency of the children. Total fluency was calculated by adding the number of popular and original responses. Behavior patterns also emerged from the study. Children generated not only more responses, but a greater variation in narratives when they were allowed to interact with tangible characters and act out behaviors. This is part of larger project to design a toy that fosters children's creativity using tangible objects and gestures.