Acrylic Pour Art - a Metaphor for Growing Executive Functioning in Children

A reflection by Executive Director, Presbyterian Preschool Services after attending the Keynote by Professor Adele Diamond at the Inaugural Bridging Worlds in Early Childhood Development Conference by KLCII on 31 Jul 2025

Executive functioning in children is like creating an acrylic pour painting—fluid, layered, and full of surprise. It’s not a paint-by-numbers task. It’s an unfolding process. The teacher is not the artist who paints over the child’s canvas, but the one who sets the conditions for creativity and growth to flow.

Developmental neuroscientist Adele Diamond highlights three key areas of executive function:

1.  Working Memory – holding and using information

2.  Inhibitory Control – resisting impulses and distractions

3.  Cognitive Flexibility – adjusting to new rules, perspectives, or challenges

Like a good acrylic pour artist, a teacher must be:

•   Patient – knowing that deep growth takes time

•   Attentive but not anxious – observing without hovering

•   Trusting – of the materials, the process, and the child’s inner resources

•   Humble – relinquishing the need to control every detail

Children cannot grow these muscles of the mind if we are constantly stepping in. As Adele Diamond reminds us, “Unnecessary help is a hindrance to the child’s learning.” In acrylic pour, over-involvement muddies the colours. In learning, it blurs the child’s confidence, self-regulation, and initiative.

Instead, teachers must practice protective restraint—not passive, but purposeful. We guide the child with scaffolding, structure, and space—a gentle hand that helps tilt the canvas just enough, but never paints over it.

This work is rooted in three deep values:

•   Truth – seeing the child as they are, not through our anxieties or agendas. It means trusting that even when messy, the process is real, and every child brings their own voice, potential, and way of learning.

•   Beauty – recognising and celebrating the emergence of something unique. Not perfect, but full of layers, effort, courage, and colour.

•   Goodness – acting with kindness and justice. Creating classrooms that are safe, encouraging, and generous—especially when children fall, fail, or fumble.

And above all, Inclusion. In an acrylic pour, no drop of colour is wasted. Every part has a role in the final pattern. Likewise, in our classrooms, every child belongs—regardless of ability, language, behaviour, or background. Executive functioning is not just for the “high-flyers.” It is a gift—and a right—for every learner.

So we keep showing up with:

•   Calm presence

•   Strategic silence

•   Joyful expectancy

•   Protective restraint

•   And a deep faith in the process

Because in the end, we’re not just raising students who comply. We’re nurturing children who think, adapt, persevere, and create. Like a good acrylic pour, the result may surprise us. But it will be honest. Beautiful. And fully their own.

Education, like acrylic pour, begins with care and so much more.

We choose the colours, rich and bright — curriculum shaped by truth and light.

We ready the canvas, clean and wide — a space where love and trust abide.

We pour with purpose, heart and grace — through every teacher’s warm embrace.

But once it flows, it finds its pace — each stream of colour takes its place.

Each child responds in their own way — unfolding beauty day by day.

Not bound by paths that we’ve designed — they find their rhythm, redefine.

No two the same, and none complete — yet every pour is bold and sweet.

Some colours clash, some softly blend — beginnings rarely show the end.

And so we guide, but never steer — we shape with presence, hope, and cheer.

For every child’s a work of art — with mind and soul and beating heart.

Not perfect, polished, neat, or planned — but beautiful, just as they stand.

教育如同丙烯流体画

教育，像丙烯流体画，从爱和细心开始发芽。

我们精心挑选色彩缤纷 - 课程扎根真理与光分。

铺展开一幅洁净画布 - 一个满是信任与爱的国度。

我们倾注热情与恩慈 - 每位老师温暖又真实。

当色彩流动，自会安放 - 每道光影都各有方向。

每个孩子回应不同 - 每一天都展现新的内容。

不受框架所限制 - 他们自由，活出独特的意义。

没有雷同，也未完美 - 却都带着勇敢与美。

有的交融，有的独舞 - 起点从来不是终幕。

我们不是掌舵人 - 只以盼望与温柔陪伴旅程。

因为每个孩子都是艺术品 - 有思想、有灵魂、有跳动的心。

不是完美、光鲜、整齐划 - 而是美得真实、自然又独一无二。