6 Year Old Drawing Skills

Picasso said: "It took me four years to paint like Raphael , but a lifetime to paint like  a child ."

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"What the great artist struggles to achieve, the child creates naturally."—Picasso

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Every child develops differently both mentally, physically, and artistically.  One child might have a particular experience that another child may never have. Children's art work often reflects their personal experiences.  The more knowledge teachers have about children's development the more they can take it into consideration when putting together an educational curriculum.

A feature that is being taken into consideration and is also being used in many schools today is the concept of a developmentally appropriate practice. According to a textbook entitledHuman diversity in education; An integrative approach developmentally appropriate practice "involves providing learning environments, instructional content, and pedagogical practices that are responsive to the major attributes and salient needs and interests that characterize a given life period" (Cushner, McClelland & Safford, 2003, 319).  Why should a school and a teacher be aware of this?  By having knowledge of this practice a teacher can learn three important things.  First, being teachers will gain "knowledge of the social and cultural context in which children live" (Cushner, 2003, 320).  Second, teachers can learn "about the strengths, interests, and needs of each individual child" (Cushner, 2003, 320).  Third, teachers can acquire knowledge about "child development and learning" (Cushner, 2003, 320).  When teachers have access to these skills and bodies of knowledge they can prepare for the needs of their students.

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Children engage in art activities for multiple reasons.  Many children will engage in art and art related activities just for their own personal pleasure (Schirrmacher, 1993, 32).  Doing art can help children engage many of their senses especially those of sight and touch.  In addition to the heightening of their senses art makes children more aware of the physical environment in which they live (Day & Hurwitz, 2001, 49).  Art can help further children's creative, social, and emotional selves (Day, 64). Muscle coordination and motor skills are also developed when children engage in art.  Proof of this is found in the scribbling stage of artistic development.  At the start of the stage, a child grasps a crayon with their whole hand and swings his or her arm back and forth from the elbow.  By the end of this stage a child will grasp a crayon with his or her fingers and drawing is now done by movement of the wrist (Schirrmacher, 98).  SAT scores of student can also be affected by art.  In 2002, The College Entrance Examination Board did a comparative study of the scores that belonged to student who had some form of arts training and those who had none at all.  The study showed that students with arts training scored 57 points higher on the mathematics part of the test and 41 points higher on the verbal part of the test (The National Association for Music Education).  In the United States only 30 states require students to have some course work in the art before graduation (Manzo).

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Developmental Stages

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Scribbling

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The first developmental art stage children go through is called Scribbling.  This stage usually occurs between the ages of two and four years.  The Scribbling stage is divided into three sections called random,controlled, and naming.

In the random section of the stage one of the drawing characteristics often done by children is the holding of a drawing tool with their whole hand while swinging their arm back and forth.  When they are drawing they tend not to look at the paper and often scribble off the page.  When drawing children do not seem to pay any attention to the marks they have already made and draw overtop of previous marks (Schirrmacher, 98).

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The next section is called controlled scribbling.  By this time children can usually copy an imperfect circle (Day, 51).  When drawing they tend to stay on the page, repeat particular motions, and often draw around marks that were already made on the page.

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The final section of the scribbling stage is called naming.  By this section the drawing utensil used is held with the fingers and children use their wrists to draw.  There is a greater variety of marks on the page and the marks are purposefully placed (Schirrmacher, 99).  A common mark found in most children's art is called a mandala. A mandala is a circle that is often divided by lines through it (Day, 51).  The marks in the naming section are often given names by the child artist for example jumping, running, and playing (Day, 51).

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Preschematic

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The second stage of artistic development in called the Preschematic stage.  This stage usually occurs between the ages of four and seven (Schirrmacher, 99).  During this stage children gain the ability to copy a square and a triangle (Schirrmacher, 99).  The objects that are drawn on a page usually seem to float and are usually not related to one another.  When drawing or doing any form of art children are often seen rotating their paper or getting up and walking around their art (Schirrmacher. 99).  Images of humans often have arms and legs attached to a head, very simple fingers, and simple facial features.  Children in this stage will often choose a color to use that is their favorite, for example Johnny drew a blue dog because blue is his favorite color (Day, 52).

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Schematic

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The third stage of artistic development is called the Schematic stage, and it occurs between seven to nine years of age (Schirrmacher, 99).  The art children produce in this stage is often a reflection of the activities they engage themselves in from day to day.  Some key elements to identifying a work of art from this stage are the use of a skyline, baseline, very little overlapping of objects, and human figures often look very geometric in shape (Day, 54).  Art of this stage will show a concept called plan elevation which basically means a child will draw the side of an object, for example the legs of a table, but the top of the table will also be drawn often with object on it (Day, 55).  Another characteristic seen in a lot of art works from this stage is called x-ray drawing (Day, 59).  An example of x-ray drawing would be if a child drew an image of a house and also drew the room inside the house with tables, beds, and perhaps people.  The drawing will basically appear to be see-through.

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Gang Age

The fourth stage of art development is called the Gang Age, and this stage occurs between the ages of nine to twelve(Schirrmacher, 99).  Some of the drawing characteristics seen in children's art at this age are the sky meets the horizon line and objects overlap one another (Day, 63).  In this stage children are sensitive about their works or art (Schirrmacher, 99).  They also pay a lot of attention to details in clothing and the physical environment (Schirrmacher, 99).

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Pseudo-Naturalistic

The fifth stage is called the Pseudo-Naturalistic stage, and it occurs between the ages of twelve and fourteen (Schirrmacher, 99).  Teenagers at this stage are aware of shadows and highlights on objects (Schirrmacher, 99).They also attempt linear perspective.  Often sexual characteristics are over emphasized, for example, large muscles on men and big breasts on women (Day, 63).  At this stage art is not often done spontaneously, and they become extremely sensitive and self conscious about their work (Schirrmacher, 99).

Students need to have tools to gain success in their educational careers and perhaps developing a developmentally appropriate practice is appropriate.  "The stages of artistic development are useful norms that can enlighten teachers" (Day, 2001, 50).  The art which children produce, from the earliest scribbles through adulthood, is a window into their likes and dislikes, personal experiences, interests, and minds. [http://portfolio.educ.kent.edu/schneiderj/kids.htm]

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For further information

• Drawing Development in Children
• Art, Design and Psychology
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• Child art
• The five stages of development in children's art
• Developmental Stages of Drawing
• Developmental Stages in Children's Art
• The Stages of Artistic Development

• Spatial Treatment in Children's Drawings:
  Why do Japanese children draw in particular ways?

• Jean Piaget and the Child's Spontaneous Geometry
• Children's drawings of human figures
• Drawing Development Timeline

• Lowenfeld's Stages of Artistic Development

6 Year Old Drawing Skills

Source: https://plasticenglish.wordpress.com/drawing-development-in-children/

Posted by: voexill1984.blogspot.com

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