Does your 6 yr old still scribble? Do they enjoy drawing?

[Aeress]

Hey All-
My dd just turned 6. For the past 6 yrs I would call her a "late bloomer", she has her own speed and it is slow and steady to slow and paused. She is a very affectionate, caring and emotional child. Sometimes I call her my "peace" child because of her ability to calm people.

She did the typical stages of drawing going from scribbling to shapes to people by 4/5, then she just stopped drawing for a very long time. Recently she will draw something, like last night a cake design, which was a circle with a bunch of scribbles in it. Or she made a rocket, but it didn't look rocket like, again it was rather round with scribbles and then an area all colored in.
In fact, I rarely can see what she says is there. I am a pretty imaginative person and try to see the thing she says she drew but it very rarely looks like the vague shape of the thing.
Is this still typical for 6? She is a visual/spatial learner and it seems like *she* can see the object clearly but once transfered to paper, it doesn't appear like anything to anyone other than her. She seems fine with it and I don't respond negatively, I just ask her questions to help clarify the object.

I'm not really concerned but surprised. Does your child show an interest in drawing? Have their skills progressed?

[elizawill]

yes, my son still scribbles and he's 6 1/2. i very often have to ask him to tell me about his drawing, because i have no idea what it is. he's a bit of a silly boy though, so often his description is strange anyway, lol. here is something he just drew yesterday (which is very typical of his artwork).

it is a "squid-crab-vampire-alien".

http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x...ieldrawing.jpg

[Marimami]

Originally Posted by elizawill

yes, my son still scribbles and he's 6 1/2. i very often have to ask him to tell me about his drawing, because i have no idea what it is. he's a bit of a silly boy though, so often his description is strange anyway, lol. here is something he just drew yesterday (which is very typical of his artwork).

it is a "squid-crab-vampire-alien".

http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x...ieldrawing.jpg

I gotta say that I think his description is dead on... it really does look like that!

DD is 6 also, and I see a huge range in skills amongst her friends. She is very artsy/craftsy girl but she is more into mixed media than drawing. She is also a perfectionist and gets upset if her drawings don't match the idea she had in her brain. I have seen her drawing skills improve dramatically since she was 4ish, and they don't look like scribbles even if I'm not always entirely sure what I'm viewing.

She has really been enjoying the "Draw Write Now" books lately, which surprised me because she normally doesn't take well to artistic instruction: http://www.drawyourworld.com/

She's also had some interest in the Doodle and Anti-Coloring books off/on. These are the books that give kids starting points for drawing... like "You've just discovered a new country. What does its flag look like?" or partially started drawings and you have to finish them, etc.

Just sharing in case you think she would enjoy developing her art skills more!

Holli

[AAK]

For me, if it was predominately scribbles, I would be looking into it. I am not saying that a six year old should be able to draw very well. In fact, elizawill's example seemed within the normal range to me. His "squid crab vampire alien" has many legs (squid), pincher arms (crab), pointy teeth (vampire) and something on his head (alien).

So, if your dds drawings look like elizawill's example, don't worry about it. If not, then I would start by asking her to draw a picture of herself. By six, the child generally has a head, body, arms, face, legs, etc. vs just a head with the legs dropping from it and the arms shooting out from the sides.

These may be helpful:
http://www.learningdesign.com/Portfo...iddrawing.html
http://www.education.com/reference/a...tages-drawing/
http://planningwithkids.com/2010/08/...rawing-stages/

If my child was really off the charts (delayed) for drawing, I would check into an OT eval for fine motor skills.

Amy

[Aeress]

I guess it isn't scribbles so much as she will draw something and then scribble all over the top of it.

For instance, she drew a dinosaur and it did have a body, arms,legs etc but then she scribbled on top of it and colored over top of it. She doesn't tend to be a perfectionist, so I don't think it is her way of not being happy with her work.

It's weird...maybe I will take a picture of something she drew and post it.

[One_Girl]

My dd likes drawing a lot and always has, but she did go through a period where she would draw a picture then scribble over the top. It was her way of coloring it that she chose to do because it is what she wanted to do. I think a lot of it came because she had a power struggle with one of the teachers in her kindergarten before/after school program about having to color in the lines and color a certain way and she won. I notice that the things she colors now are not scribbled and I think it is because she has gotten over asserting her right to do what she wants to do with her art. She did struggle for a long time with handwriting so she may have been even more set in having her own way because it was hard for her to draw in the lines and she was frustrated by the struggle. Whatever the cause, she is over her difficulty. I think you should give it another year then address it if she doesn't start moving out of that on her own.

[elizawill]

it sounds like she is drawing fine to me. my son will still scribble (and i don't mean like the example of his drawing i posted above)...i mean literal scribbles. he likes to name every.single.picture though, and his scribbles will always be like "lava burst", "cracking cloud", "volcano splat" (lots of fun & silly names)...and i guess these pictures are better suited to his liking with a scribbled theme, lol. at church or co-op though, if he is asked to color something in (i.e. coloring page), he will just scribble over it like a toddler (i can tell it was just to follow instructions and get it over with). he doesn't like coloring books usually though. for me, i would become concerned if my son wasn't able to write anything (like letters) ...or if all of his attempts to write letters looked like scribble and even with practice, he showed no progress. but for his personal drawings, as long as he's having fun, & they make sense to him - i just leave him alone.

[elizawill]

Originally Posted by Marimami

I gotta say that I think his description is dead on... it really does look like that!

lol. yes, it does.

[AAK]

Originally Posted by Aeress

I guess it isn't scribbles so much as she will draw something and then scribble all over the top of it.

For instance, she drew a dinosaur and it did have a body, arms,legs etc but then she scribbled on top of it and colored over top of it. She doesn't tend to be a perfectionist, so I don't think it is her way of not being happy with her work.

It's weird...maybe I will take a picture of something she drew and post it.

In that case, it sounds really normal. For a variety of reasons a child might choose to do that. As long as she has evidence of being capable of the fine motor skills used in drawing (and it sounds like she does) I wouldn't worry about it.

Amy

[WhaleinGaloshes]

After your second description (that the dinosaur had some form), it sounds very normal to me. Drawing can be an experiential thing, I think, almost like a movie happening. So the end result looks like a big scrawl, but there was a story that happened in the process.

[*Jessica*]

I think seeing a picture or two she has drawn would be helpful. Or if you want, the next time I see you I can bring a picture or two that Nik and Nate have drawn for comparison.

[4evermom]

Originally Posted by WhaleinGaloshes

After your second description (that the dinosaur had some form), it sounds very normal to me. Drawing can be an experiential thing, I think, almost like a movie happening. So the end result looks like a big scrawl, but there was a story that happened in the process.

My ds and I used to paint or draw together. We'd have wars with our marks, make force fields, etc. There was never a pretty picture at the end.

At least I don't have to worry about whether or not to save all his art or how to store it!