The Royal Foundation promotes shared creativity in new portrait campaign
by Jess Gibson
A new campaign encouraging families to get creative with portraits has been launched by The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood.
The campaign, which follows the release of a framework on social and emotional development from the Royal Foundation in February, aims to help children develop their social and emotional skills, as well as nurture their relationships.
The Royal Foundation states that creative activities – such as adults and children drawing portraits of each another – encourage children to focus their thoughts, to communicate with others, and help them to know themselves.
The suggested adaptations of this activity babies and young toddlers are looking at photos of loved ones and talking about the people in them or sharing photos of them with a friend or family member and talking about what they were doing together at the time.
Commenting, The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood said: “You can enjoy this activity in any way that is fun for you and the child you are with; you might want to draw, paint, or make a model out of things around the house to make your portrait. The magic of this activity comes in really looking at and focusing on each other, connecting, and having fun together.
“We encourage grown-ups to draw with children so that you are both creating portraits of each other. Use the shared experience to appreciate the strengths in each other’s artwork and perhaps have a giggle where things don’t turn out as planned!
“We’d love to see examples of your portraits, so please do share what you are comfortable with on or and tag our account, @earlychildhood – and, most importantly, let us know how you found the experience!â€