This handbook focuses on the development and nurturance of creativity across the lifespan, from early childhood to adolescence, adulthood, and later life. It answers the question: how can we help individuals turn their creative potential into achievement? Each chapter examines various contexts in which creativity exists, including school, workplace, community spaces, and family life. It covers various modalities for fostering creativity such as play, storytelling, explicit training procedures, shifting of attitudes about creative capacity, and many others. The authors review research findings across disciplines, encompassing the work of psychologists, educators, neuroscientists, and creators themselves, to describe the best practices for fostering creativity at each stage of development.

‘The perspectives on creative development are diverse and comprehensive, providing insights into how creativity can change throughout one’s life. I found important implications for both my personal and professional lives in every single chapter. This handbook will be the seminal work on creative development for years to come.’

Jonathan Plucker - Julian C. Stanley Professor of Talent Development, Johns Hopkins University, USA

‘This wonderful book brings together leading scientific experts in the field, and addresses creativity from preschool to adulthood. Topics range from children’s play, to neurodevelopmental disorders, to cultural differences in China, to videogames. It is a valuable resource for anyone interested in how creativity develops over the lifespan.’

Keith Sawyer - Morgan Distinguished Professor in Educational Innovations, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA

‘The ideas of how creativity is developed over the lifespan is explored by an outstanding assembly of creativity researchers. This handbook will become the gold standard of scholarship in this critical area of research for educators, psychologists, and anyone else interested in how we think creatively.’

Jeffrey K. Smith - Professor of Education and Dean, University of Otago, New Zealand

‘Anyone who has children, teaches children, studies children, or just wonders about how creativity develops will want to have this book. This volume covers the literature on the development of creativity, the editors are leaders in the field, and the authors are top-notch. I recommend the book most highly.’

Robert J. Sternberg - Professor of Human Development, Cornell University, USA, and Honorary Professor of Psychology, University of Heidelberg, Germany

‘Although it is a first-rate reference work, this volume could easily be used as a class textbook, either stand-alone or with other texts. It is a marvelous complement to Kaufman's earlier Cambridge Handbook of Creativity, edited with Robert Sternberg; the Cambridge Handbook of the Neuroscience of Creativity, edited by Rex Jung and Oshin Vartanian … Recommendation: Essential.’

S. T. Schroth Source: Choice Reviews