Visual arts education in pre-school and integrated education has an integrating role in relation to most areas of education. In the early period of mental development, the visual arts, along with speech, become the basic form of expression for children and a factor in the development of creative thinking. This period of children's mental development is called the age of expression in connection with the strong need to express oneself through creative plastic activity. Reasoning then becomes a cognitive activity and artistic expression becomes a basic form of expression. Visual arts education should be a permanent part of teaching and parenting activities. It is especially important at the elementary level when children make a mental breakthrough and cognitive processes intensify. and cognitive processes are intensified, making most of them ready for learning, which gradually becomes their primary form of activity. The main aim of the study is to present visual arts education as one of the one of the most important forms of activity of the pre-school and early school-age child and to indicate that artistic creativity results from the child's psychological needs manifested in all forms of activity and is the driving force behind the development of the young person. Visual creativity is a process of making a difference, the best strategy for guiding development. This assumption compels us to explore the essence of creativity both in terms of creations and works, as well as the developmental mechanisms conditioning the creative process The influence of the first years of life on the later behaviour and actions of an adult is a scientifically proven fact. Young children's creativity is linked to his or her own concrete experience and forms the basis of a research attitude. By drawing, the child tells and explains, at the same time discovers himself and expresses his world; he is by nature a creator. Children's expression is a form of manifestation of the child's creative attitude.

Dr hab. Lidia Marszałek Dr Krzysztof Dziurzyński Dr Barbara Pietrzak