New Delhi, April 28 -- As a pediatrician, I spend a lot of time talking to parents about height, weight, sleep and nutrition. Those indicators matter. Yet some of the most important aspects of a child's development never appear on a growth chart. In the first five years of life, a child's brain develops at a pace we will never see again. This window lays the foundation not only for academic learning, but for how a child thinks, adapts, regulates emotions and expresses ideas over a lifetime.

At the centre of this rapid growth is creativity. From a medical standpoint, creativity is how young brains make sense of the world. It begins in the crib and on the playroom floor moments that may look simple but are neurologically powerful.

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