Research has shown that encouraging your child to develop their drawing skills can have several benefits. However, are you wondering what the role of drawing could be in your child’s growth process and what the stages of drawing development in children are? If yes, this post could help you understand the benefits of promoting this skill to enhance your child’s overall developmental skills. Keep reading to discover the important stages of drawing development in children at different ages and their significance in your child’s life.
Drawing Development In Children
Typically, drawing development stages include general art development guidelines, as each child has a different growth trajectory. Some kids may never reach their potential in terms of drawing development, due to reasons such as lack of interest. This is quite normal and does not affect your child’s development. Psychologists and educators have long researched the way children showcase their growth milestones through their drawing skills and various drawing development stages in a child’s life.
Stages Of Drawing Development
Child development drawing stages depend on your child’s age. Here are the five stages of drawing development in children (1) (2):
1. Between 2 and 4 years
Random pictures and scribbles define this stage as your child begins to move the arm and work with a drawing tool such as a crayon or a pencil. They will draw lines and dots and just scribble away on a drawing surface. It is here where the creativity of a child has the full room to develop as they have no notion of the real appearance of any object.
2. Between 3 and 7 years
At this stage of pre-schematic art, your child uses different geometrical shapes and lines to draw the objects. It is here where the child will use various combinations of circles, squares, and lines to represent objects in their environment (3). However, they still aren’t quite aware of how these objects are organized. Thus, the pictures may appear to be floating on the drawing surface before your child learns to arrange them logically.
3. Between 6 and 11 years
Children can reach the schematic stage between 6 to 11 years of age. This stage is all about the ‘schema’, which means adhering to the same symbol to represent a specific object. For instance, your child draws houses the same way every time. Their drawings also become more realistic and detailed. As they advance through this stage, they may begin to use multiple baselines and arrange the drawings into different layouts. Not all children reach the peak of this stage if they are devoid of adequate drawing practice.
4. 9 years and older
This is the transitional stage and by this time a child’s drawing skills improve to a great extent. Your child can produce art per the standards of an adult’s understanding of the world. However at this stage, their childhood still takes over, and they transition between this stage and the previous stage of schematics. One significant developmental milestone at this stage is that the child begins to define gender roles for people they draw through items of clothing and other finer details in their artwork. Their improved spatial perspective is also evident in their drawings.
5. Twelve years and older
The last stage is the stage of realism in a child’s art. The child becomes an astute artist as far as their understanding of the medium is concerned. The child now knows more about art, drawing tools, their subjects, and their environment. They also know what mature artwork looks like and begin to draw as per their new understanding of life. The self-critical aspect of their drawings also defines this stage.
Significance Of Drawing Development Stages In A Child’s Life
Drawing not only helps your child’s growth in many ways, but the activity can also give you a glimpse into your child’s developmental milestones and supplement their learning in many ways.
Drawing develops your child’s fine motor skills (using hands and fingers for various tasks). You can introduce your kids to different drawing tools to further improve their fine motor skills (1) (4).
Drawing enhances a child’s creativity. Help your child’s creative development by letting them freely draw as they wish. Try to resist the urge to interfere with coloring books or instructions especially during the first stage (1). Drawing activities help a child’s emotional functioning and hence help the child in other areas of their life, such as academics. Using this great tool can assist your child’s growth in so many ways (5).
