Libby Public School Series; Pre-Handwriting - Drawing

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When I was a child  I remember drawing all the time, now I see very few children pick up a pencil and draw. Drawing is for all ages however it is an important, and these days often overlooked aspect of child development. It elicits creativity, a way to express our selves, processes thoughts and emotions, develops fine motor skills and eye hand coordination. It's the foundation for pre-writing skills.
Education has changed and so has pre-school. Instead of  free drawing I see kids coloring pre-printed pages and working on writing letters and numbers. Children can learn to write this way, however what I see is that many children "draw" their letters by copying the shapes rather than developing fluent letter formation. I feel this is largely to blame to the lack of a good prehandwriting foundation, we need to get back to "Basics", drawing.


Drawing develops in stages similar to other aspects of child development. How the child draws a person determines the stage  of development in motor skills and where the child is in expressing his or her understanding of the world and all the things that are important to them.  In 1926 Florence Goodenough developed the "Draw-A-Person" test.
 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6160634/ This test was regularly used up until the 1970's. The test  was used as an indicator of cognitive ability with a correlation between the drawing at age 4 and measures of intelligence at age 14. Although the predictability of intelligence based on a drawing is highly debatable, the drawing of  a person at age 4 can certainly give a lot of information in regards to readiness skills in other areas of development such as fine motor skills, perception of self and sequencing ability.

Developmental Stages of Drawing:
  1. Random Scribbling; learning cause and effect and exploration  (12-18 months)
  2. Controlled Scribbling; Circular or to and fro scribbles and dots. Development of intent with repeat movements (2 years)
  3. Lines and Patterns; Basic shapes develop, drawing starts randomly, however the child can tell you what the picture represents afterwards. The use of color is limited (3 years)
  4. Picture of Objects or People; The child draws what he/she knows not what they see, combine multiple shapes, drawing of a person progress from a head with legs to a person with details and multiple body parts and details. The drawings have meaning and intention. By the age of 5 the child will start to show their creative side adding details and other images to their drawing. They plan the picture ahead of time and the use of color becomes more realistic. Objects may still be floating in the air with spatial perceptual skills not yet fully developed. By the the time the child is 6 yrs old they have developed their own style of drawing, and by 7 objects are drawn with a baseline. Drawings have developed from what he or she knows to how he or she sees the world.  (4-7 years)
How can you stimulate your child to draw. Get out a pencil, some crayons and a piece of paper sit down with your child, visit and doodle, let yourself and your child be creative. Focus on the process and not the product.  Talk about what you are drawing, what colors you are using, share your experience with each other. Enjoy.
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