A Descriptive Study of the Creative and Social Behavior of Four Highly Original Young Children*

Abstract

ABSTRACT The paper reports findings of a study describing and analyzing the creative and social behavior of four highly original children in the context of 1 year's preschool experience. Videotape, interview, participant observation, and artifact data were collected to construct the descriptions. The study attempted to answer the following questions: (1) Do young children identified as highly original by the Starkweather Originality Test also demonstrate originality in play and products? (2) Are common patterns of play choice demonstrated by highly original children? (3) Were there similar identifiable creative characteristics among the four children? (4) Were there characteristics of social competence evident among the children? (5) What strategies did each child use to satisfy social goals? (6) Were there common patterns of peer social behavior among the children? Each of the children is described in terms of demographic characteristics, creative characteristics, and social characteristics. Conclusions indicate that all four children had high levels of inner imagination, that each of them had a speciality area for creative expression, and that all four children were independent, persistent, fluent with ideas, and expressively elaborate. Socially, all four had different levels of social competence and used different patterns of social behavior. (DB)