The Magic of Childhood: How Curiosity, Creativity, and Joy Empower Children to Thrive
Author: Caitlin Dermody, Partnering In Education Research Fellow, & Dana McCoy, Associate Professor of Human Development & Urban Education Advancement, Harvard Graduate School of Education, USA

We all begin our initial explorations of the world through play. As young children, our observations about the people, places, and environments around us inspire questions and connections that lead to dreaming far beyond what we already know.
As adults, reflecting on these experiences of early imaginative play may fill us with some degree of nostalgia. But the truth is that these magical moments can generate more than just fond memories – they also serve as the foundations through which we develop a durable set of skills that follows us into adulthood, helping us to make sense of the world around us and to build lasting connections with others.
Three of these skills – curiosity, creativity, and a capacity for joy – are included in the Centre for Early Childhood’s Shaping Us Social and Emotional Skills Framework cluster of “Explore the World.” Curiosity can be thought of as a person’s desire to know more or their “thirst for knowledge,” whereas creativity is their ability to generate new ideas and associations. Joy, on the other hand, is a temporary emotional state of elation caused by achieving a goal or experiencing a connection to something bigger than oneself. As visualized in the framework, the ways in which we use curiosity, creativity, and joy to explore the world around us are largely dependent on our other social and emotional skills. Importantly, recent scientific evidence also suggests that skills in this cluster are important in their own right.
First, while expressions of curiosity, creativity, and joy may look differently across cultures and contexts, these skills are believed to be universally valuable for bolstering both individual and societal well-being. Curiosity, creativity, and joy inspire people to ask questions, innovate solutions, and create community. For individual children, these skills have been associated with greater levels of motivation, academic performance, creative achievement, and goal-setting. Beyond supporting individual success, creativity, curiosity, and joy have also been found to facilitate social aspects of development, including building connectedness and a sense of community across multiple individuals. For businesses and organizations, these skills have been found to be especially relevant for employees’ ability to innovate, grow, and thrive.
Second, although everyone possesses the ability to be curious, creative, and joyful, these deeply social skills don’t develop in isolation. Like all social and emotional skills within the Shaping Us Framework, curiosity, creativity, and joy grow best in environments that are warm, responsive to individuals’ needs, and free of toxic stressors (e.g., violence). But there are also specific conditions that can foster these skills early in life. For example, parents, caregivers, and teachers interested in supporting children’s development of curiosity, creativity, and joy can provide opportunities for imaginative play, ask questions that build on children’s interests, support and extend their creative ideas, and celebrate their effort in all things.
Curiosity, creativity, and joy are essential elements for finding both enjoyment and success in life. How can we elevate this unique combination of skills within the lives of children and the lives of each other? Think back to the elements of your early experiences of play. Reflect on the loving environments where you felt free to explore, play, and try new things as a child. Keeping these facets in mind, perhaps we all can develop the curiosity needed to find creative solutions to support all individuals’ capacity to grow these skills, and hopefully, also find the joy in the process along the way.