Physical Activity Meets Creativity: A “CreActive” Motor Development and Learning Perspective

The purpose of this position paper is to raise awareness of intriguing interdisciplinary intersections among physical activity, motor learning/development, creativity, and cognition. A major intersection is the potential of physical activity that involves the effortful learning of novel and/or complex movement actions to elicit cognitive engagement and influence brain structure and function. Exploring this intersection is meaningful when considering the increasingly holistic understanding of motor learning/development that requires being able to think across boundaries. Indeed, a holistic view means adopting a multidisciplinary approach to address the changes in both motor and nonmotor skill domains triggered by motor learning/development and an interdisciplinary approach to address the interconnected nature of those changes. We see motor skills as having a broader scope, encompassing the functionality and originality that characterize creative movement actions subserved by both deliberate, cognitively demanding and unintentional, sensorimotor processes. To inform practice development, we highlight where physical activity meets creativity: at the crossroad of kinesiology, developmental neuroscience, and pedagogies that embrace an exploration-based, creativity-enhancing approach to motor learning. Finally, we propose how working at this crossroad may allow us to take a transdisciplinary step forward in evolving practices of holistic development promotion that have creative motor skill acquisition at their core.