One of the many joys of being a foster carer is positively impacting the lives of children in care, which they will likely cherish forever. Much of your responsibility as a foster carer is encouraging foster children to experience fun and social activities like art, which can help them overcome past trauma. Art can have a powerful impact on a foster child’s development. You can find the five main benefits below.
How Art Can Help Foster Children: Allows for Bonding
Your fostering agency will understand the importance of strong bonds between foster carers and foster children, and they provide appropriate training to ensure you’re fully equipped – you can read more about this over on fcascotland.co.uk. This brings us to art, which comes in countless shapes and sizes and offers a fantastic opportunity to build positive connections. Put some time aside each week to do art-related activities together, whether you’re making cards or getting messy with finger paints.
Provides Alternative Means of Expression
Many foster children struggle to communicate with words, both verbally and written. However, through the power of art, they can find alternative ways to express themselves. For example, through art, foster children can express their emotions without feeling pressured to discuss them. If you’re given pieces of art, make sure you offer positive praise and try to open a positive line of communication.
Improves Academic Achievements and Skills
Artistic talent involves hand-eye coordination, spatial awareness, patience, creativity, and more. By engaging in art, your foster child will pick up all these skills, which they can apply to other areas of their academic lives to boost achievement levels.
Increases Self-Esteem and Confidence Levels
Confidence and self-esteem are essential parts of life, and nurturing these within foster children is your job. By choosing the types of art they want to engage in, your foster child will likely feel a boost in their confidence levels because they can take control.
You can take this further by taking your foster child to pick up art supplies, where they can experience real-life social interactions by asking for help. By bringing out boosted levels of confidence and self-esteem, you’re better equipping your foster child to deal with what lies ahead.
Inspires Innovative Thinking
Your foster child will face many challenges in life, and it’s your mission to equip them to deal with these to the best of your abilities. Art is a great way to achieve this, as it promotes creative thinking and innovation. These attributes will help your foster child overcome societal problems and may encourage them to explore more fulfilling career aspirations.
A foster child’s time in your care may be brief, so you have to make the most of this time to make a positive impact that will help them to make it in life. Art is a powerful medium that can be used to express feelings and explore interests, and it presents the perfect opportunity to form strong connections.
