Aistear Blogs

Aistear emphasises the holistic development of babies, toddlers and young children through a variety of learning experiences, with a notable focus on the arts. This includes art, drama, dance, and music, all of which are essential in fostering children's wellbeing, creativity, self-expression, imagination and emotional development. Aistear aligns with both the Working Principles for Engaging with the Arts in Early Learning and Care (DECDIY, 2022) and the Guide to Early Years Education Inspections (DE, 2025). These documents highlight the importance of the arts in early childhood.  

Through their active engagement with the arts, babies, toddlers and young children have the opportunity to be creative, take the initiative to explore, and to express themselves. They experience the power, joy, excitement, beauty, potential and relevance of the arts. An important role of the educator is to actively participate in the creative process. By preparing the learning environment with provocations and open-ended materials, and by joining in with babies, toddlers, and young children during creative learning opportunities, educators can highlight the benefits of the arts. This collaborative approach nurtures a shared sense of discovery and creativity in early learning and development.

Aistear emphasises encouraging babies, toddlers, and young children to explore their creativity using various materials and techniques to create their own artworks such as mark-making, cutting, drawing, creating temporary art, gluing, painting, building, printing, sculpting, threading, sewing and weaving. This helps them start to express their feelings, thoughts, and ideas through different kinds of play and creative experiences such as dance, drama, music, singing and storytelling. These experiences help babies, toddlers and young children share what they feel and think in unique and meaningful ways, emphasising the creative process over the end product. For example, a musical provocation, using instruments like tambourines, maracas and soft drum pads, can support babies’ exploration of music, sound and rhythm. Educators gently guide the experience, softly naming the instruments and the sounds they make, enriching the babies’ exploration with comforting and supportive words. This musical play helps babies to begin connecting sounds with actions, fostering early communication and sensory skills in a gentle and engaging way.

A previous blog looking at diversity, equity and inclusion in the updated Framework, highlighted the importance of meaningful participation to support Aistear’s vision of babies, toddlers, and young children as agentic, competent and confident learners. Educators are encouraged to support babies, toddlers and young children’s creativity by providing diverse materials and, creating inclusive learning environments that acknowledge and respect the diverse backgrounds of all babies, toddlers and young children, making sure they feel recognised and appreciated in their surroundings. This not only enhances their creativity but also supports them to be active and engaged learners.

When educators pay close attention to the many ways babies, toddlers and young children communicate, such as through the arts, drawing, dance, drama, music, poetry, pictures, writing and storytelling, they can better understand and respond to what they are expressing. For example, two children are interested in a book they find in the cosy corner on Diwali. They communicate to their educator that they would like her to read it with them. They get cosy and comfortable and begin to read together. The educator encourages the children to notice the lights and colours in the story. They compare the lights to the fairy lights on the tree in the cosy area and also make a connection to the lights in town at Christmas time. Experiencing the story together, the children were presented with an opportunity to begin to think about and to appreciate cultural diversity in the world around them.

Recognising the importance of the arts in early childhood, Aistear strongly emphasises babies, toddlers and young children being afforded opportunities to explore, create and express themselves, thereby supporting their holistic development.

Read the previous blog in our series here.