Many parents wonder when exactly a child should start to be interested in writing/drawing and how this process really takes place. There are several important steps that a child goes through before the first letters and words appear on the ruler. Below is a quick guide showing how this ability changes over time.
Children at the very beginning get pleasure from just waving a crayon and scribbling on all available surfaces. Sometimes a 9-month-old toddler begins to enter this stage, but most often it appears around 18 months of the child’s life. Here, the color of the crayon does not matter, although these expressive colors are more attractive. The child in this period presents an inverted cylindrical grip, i.e. the thumb is at the bottom of the crayon and the little finger is up. Over time, this changes and the child grasps the crayon with the whole hand, with the thumb up. During this period, it is very important to support the child’s natural curiosity and give him the opportunity to draw. It should be emphasized that a child who is already starting to name his scribbles is approaching the transition to the next developmental stage.
Between the ages of 3 and 4, children begin to try to draw a human – a cephalopod. At the beginning, it has few additional elements, but with cognitive development, the amount of details appearing in the picture increases. Still, the color does not matter and the little man is not always able to reflect reality. Therefore, the grass can be purple and the sun green. The most fun for a child is playing with colors and mixing them. So we can see that he more often combines different colors of plasticine or paints. It is worth noting that the little man lacks the ability to mark perspective – characters or objects usually have the same size, regardless of where they are placed.
Drawing really starts around the age of 5 and is perfected between the ages of 6 and 7. It can be noticed that a 6-year-old is already able to draw everything that interests him, and the colors he uses are consistent with those that appear in the surrounding reality. Here, the correct grip of the writing tool and its appropriate pressure on the sheet should already appear.
So what should we be concerned about? The most important things include:
– lack of interest in drawing and using writing tools;
– long-term incorrect grip of a writing tool;
– too strong pressure of the crayon on the sheet – sometimes there are holes in the cards;
– taking an incorrect position at the table, with strong tilts to the right and left;
– very poor drawings by a child who turned 5;
– difficulties with recreating figures drawn by a parent or teacher (for example: a 3-year-old should reproduce a circle, lines intersecting and parallel to each other, and a 5-year-old should also reproduce a square, triangle).
If such difficulties become apparent, it is worth consulting a specialist. Often the reason is reduced muscle tone, disturbances in the sense of one’s own body or vision problems. Quickly noticed problems can be solved, which will contribute to the fact that the child will get more pleasure from drawing.