1-2 YEARS THE FIRST SQUIRTS The first pencil marks on the paper, which can be placed for the precocious as early as 15-18 months, are essentially the product of hand strokes, sometimes so energetic - and combined with such limited motor control - to cause holes in the paper. Around the age of two, the child begins to sense that there is a relationship between his movements and the signs he traces , and that the latter can have different purposes and outcomes. So he varies them and discovers the pleasure of alternating horizontal and vertical lines, circles and dots. Generally, he prefers to draw in one color.
2-3 YEARS FIGURATIVE INTENTIONALITY When your child tells you that he has drawn his father, grandmother or cat, compliment him, even when, objectively, you really fail to recognize the subjects depicted. Indeed, it is at this age that a figurative intention is revealed for the first time – in advance of actual artistic skills – and the child begins to give a name to his scribble , attributing a meaning to it. He no longer draws for the mere pleasure of movement, but to represent things, people and intensely experienced sensations. He also discovers the beauty of using multiple colors in the same design. This stage is called the 'scribble with meaning'.
3 YEARS OLD AND OVER , THE CEPHALOPODIAL LITTLE ONES At the age of three the child begins to produce identifiable shapes, which resemble sketches of houses and suns: crosses, pseudo-squares and bar configurations appear, often along the edge of the paper. At the age of four, the scribbles acquired organicity and a meaning comprehensible even to adults. Furthermore, the first schematic human figures emerge: the so-called 'cephalopod men' – large head (only later with eyes, nose and mouth) and radial limbs – common to all children. Between the ages of four and five, the first draft of the trunk arrives, often even with the navel. At the same age, the child is able to depict a landscape.
By Sara Lanfranchini | Taken from the magazine Nascere Mamma
