Tips on Understanding and Encouraging Your Child's Artistic Development

Did you know there are defined stages of artistic development in children? Just as with other areas of development, children's art making goes through a predictable progression of steps as they age. By becoming familiar with these stages of artistic development, as defined by Viktor Lowenfeld, an art educator who published a book on the subject in 1947. You can understand and encourage your child's artistic development by selecting the most appropriate projects and materials for them to use at each stage.

Scribble Stage- 2 to 4 years

Anyone who has a young child or has watched one play with crayons has observed the wonder children often experience when they first realize that they can create a mark on paper. This is a powerful learning experience for children that helps teach them about cause and effect and demonstrates for them that they are capable of impacting the world around them. During this first stage of artistic development simple materials such as crayons and paper will suffice and no instructions are needed. It may help to tape the paper down to the work surface to minimize movement while your child works. You can invest in some jumbo crayons which are easier for tiny hands to hold. You might also consider triangular crayons which are usually larger and easy to hold and won't roll away from your child. These can be ordered from many sources such as www.nasco.com.

You may notice that your child demonstrates stages even within her scribbles. Children can be expected to move from random and uncontrolled marks, to repetitious and more controlled markings, to circular scribbles and finally to designating their scribbles as representing objects or people.

* A note: While popular (I have them at my home), the new Crayola Color Wonder products may not provide as vivid a cause and effect learning experience as more traditional markers and crayons. This is because there is a delay between the child's making the mark and when the mark actually becomes visible.

Pre-Schematic Stage- 4 to 6 years of age