How do children develop drawing?

Abstract

The aim of this study is to observe and explore the development of young children with regards to their drawing skills over a period of five months. Six children between the ages of four to five (Kindergarten 2) located in two separate classrooms within a state school, were randomly chosen. Each child was assigned six drawing tasks on six separate occasions. The children were allowed to draw about anything that captured their interest and were provided with an A3 blank paper, normal wax crayons, thick wax crayons and markers every time. The tasks carried out reflect upon the teachers’, families’ and society’s influence on the children’s thought process and how it affected the children’s drawings. This can also be observed during the tasks, where most of the children in this study, were very vocal. Results show that the children used mostly fantasy and creative imagination in their drawings and that people is the most common theme throughout the drawings, followed by drawings about nature. The human figure drawings all included a head and most of them included facial features. However, none of the drawings included ears. Moreover, the scribbles used by the children were observed and categorised according to different age groups. The findings show that children between the ages of 4 years 8 months and 4 years 9 months experimented with many different types of scribbles in their drawings. Through drawings, one can really learn about children and hence it is suggested that freehand drawings are included in children’s daily lives.