The Glasgow conference, 'Picture This - Young Children and the Arts',looked at how a positive early experience can affect the emotionalhappiness and personal confidence of children.
Chief executive of Children in Scotland, Bronwen Cohen, told theconference, 'We need to pay more attention to not only offering accessto the arts, but enabling all those who work with babies and children,and their families and communities, to enable the arts to be a naturalpart of their environment. The arts and creativity are not something weshould be bringing in or adding on - we should be asking why they aremissing.'
Delegates visited several urban and rural settings in Scotland to seehow the arts are being used to develop learning and communication andpromote inclusion.
Rhona Matheson, project manager of Starcatchers, who were one of thestudy visits that put on theatre productions for under- threes, said,'All children have a right to arts and culture from birth. However,before Starcatchers was founded there was very little available forbabies and young children. There is still relatively little available,but hopefully that is beginning to change'.
Conference delegates shared good practice and examples to take back totheir own settings. Ms Cohen said, 'Given the imminent publication ofthe Scottish Government's early years framework, we hope that we can alltake the opportunity to turn rhetoric into reality.'