The Stages of Drawing

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Watching your child develop and mature through their drawing is so exciting, especially when you receive that first picture of you! But what can you expect when?

It's important to remember all children develop at their own pace and hit milestones at different times so try not to compare your child with others. Instead, keep drawing fun and let them explore freely, children don't need to be taught to draw they just need the materials to do so. With that in mind here are some rough milestones of what you may expect.

1 year+

Babies and toddlers start to learn to grasp and use crayons to mark make around 15-18 months. These marks don't represent anything yet, they are just scribbles and lines and teach babies about cause and effect.

2 years+

Scribbles start to evolve in to shapes, particularly circles, lines and loops. These shapes and movements are made with more purpose to repeat and will begin to develop in to simple drawings.

3 years+

Fine motor control and hand eye coordination begins to improve. Shapes are linked together and combined for a purpose, your child can now tell you what they have drawn. You may start to see drawings of people! These people are usually drawn with just a head with legs attached. They will now have a clear preference of which hand they write and draw with.

 4 years+

Those drawings of people will now have added features such as eyes, a body and hair. At this stage the child draws what they know not what they see. They will plan what they are going to draw before they begin and will expand on their range.

5 years+

They now have a good range of things they can draw such as animals, houses, flowers and will include more details. Drawings will reflect the child's interests. Pencil control is good and they can now colour within the lines.

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