Children’s Creative
Development
Aim
To understand children’s Creative development
Context
Purpose
Response
Questions?
Why do children draw and scribble?
What does their art mean?
Why do they draw stick figures?
What a child to take up a pencil and draw?
What does it mean?
Why is it important?
Making sense of Children’s
Art
Easier to appreciate children’s art rather than
understand or explain it?
General childhood
development
From simple to complex
From general to specific
From head to toe
From inner to outer
Areas of development
Physical development
Cognitive (or intellectual)
development
Linguistic development
Emotional development
Social development
Stages of creative
development
Stages of creative
development
Scribble
Focus of inquiry
What children choose to include or
represent (content)
How children create (process)
Why children create (motive)
What they create as a result
(product)
Content
Refers to the subject matter or
object being presented
Content is often very personal
Representations may operate on a
number of levels: for example
those not intended as
communication or as a exploration
of the physical nature of the body
Adults often seek to apply
meaning where there may be
none or various
Process
The actions and skills involved
Cutting, tearing, rolling, painting, marking etc
Not all process will lead to a finished art product
Enjoyed for its own sake
Motive
The reason underlying a child’s art
Adults may explore work in relation to
‘what does it mean?’
The child’s motivations vary from
wanting to draw a cartoon after
seeing it on TV, to hearing the sound
of the marker pushed hard against
the paper, to drawing their
experience of a family day out as a
gift to a relative
Product
Refers to the final outcome
Misinterpretation
There is a risk of misinterpretation – reading too much
into the art
Study of individual children over extended period will
however reveal patterns and trends (style)
Theories and stages
Explanations
1. Physical theory
2. Emotional theory
3. Perceptual Theory
4. Cognitive Theory
Developing creative confidence
Theories:
Physical
The content, process, product,
and style of children’s art are
indicative of their limited physical
development
Limited hand-eye coordination,
fine motor control, small muscle
development, manual dexterity
and visual acuity (sharpness)
Young children’s drawings often appears
immature and unintelligible as they are
physically incapable of anything else
Could a child ‘intend’ on drawing
‘something’?
Imitation of adults or other children?
Emotional
The content and style of children’s art
is indicative of their emotional
makeup, personality, temperament,
and affective style
Significant objects, people, emotions
and events are emphasized,
exaggerated, distorted by expressive
use of colour, size, shape, line,
texture, and overall treatment
Distortion and exaggeration are used to
display emphasis and communicate
Perceptual
The content and style of children’s art reflects their
perceptual development
Not the same as physical
Perception is influenced by the neurophysiological
structure, personality, and prior learning
The child draws what he or she perceives rather
than what he or she actually sees.
Gaps:
Art education – create the structural equivalent of the
perceived 3-d object on 2-d.
Expressive therapeutic Art – Used as a vehicle for
communication and exploration
Cognitive
The content and style of children’s art is
indicative of general intelligence and a
function of conceptualisation
Children can only draw what they know
The concept of the object will determine
how that object will be represented
Young children rely on memories, images,
experiences and concepts
Experiment….and discover
Goodenough (1975)
DRAW A MAN test
Non-verbal measure of intelligence
It is assumed that the child’s drawing
of the human figure is a reflection of
that child’s concept of a man
Conceptual maturity: appearance of
limbs and location, size and
relationship of body parts
Accurate drawing = high intelligence
Disadvantages: neglect of individual
differences, experiences, and motivational,
attitudinal, and environmental factors that
can foster or inhibit concept formation.
Ears may be particularly relevant to a young
girl with pierced ears.
Omission of parts may be due to a whim
rather than knowledge, lack of time or
interest.
Knowledge can improve observation and
via versa.
Development
Global
General developmental: incorperates social, cultural,
personality, and environmental factors as well as
elements of former explainations
Stage sequence
Holistic
Knowing the stages will help:
Understand where a child is developmentally
Set appropriate but flexible expectations, neither too
high or too low
Plan a developmentally appropriate art program
Serve as a framework for evaluation and for
conferences with parents
Appreciate the process and products of during the
early years
Artistic development follows a predictable sequence
Fluid: can move back and forth
Individual: own rate and pace
Kellogg(1969)
Scribble: foundation of future art
20 basic scribbles
As the child proceeds from scribbling to picture
making, he or she passes through stages: placement,
shape, design, and pictorial.
Placement
17 different placement patterns by age 2
Shape
Diagrams or gestalts contain shapes including a circle, a cross,
square, and rectangle
Design
Two diagrams are put together to make combines
3 or more diagrams constitute an aggregate
4-5 pictorial stage
Universal across humans
Pictorial
Structured designs begin to look like objects
1. Early pictorial
2. Later pictorial
Stages
Manipulative stage: processing, exploring, making,
doing, or playing with materials
Representation stage: concern about artwork looking
like something
Cognitive
Combination of cognitive and general
developmental
Piaget: sensory-motor, concrete activity
to symbolic, higher-order conceptual
functioning
Piaget: the graphic image is a form of
semiotic or symbolic function, and as
such is a representational activity that is
considered to be half-way between
symbolic play and mental image
It is like play in its functional pleasure and
assimilation (incorporation) and like the
mental image in its effort at imitating the
real
Piaget and Inhelder (1969), the very first
form of drawing does not seem imitative
but is more like pure play.
Child realises marks and tries to repeat
them from memory. The child moves to
intention of action
Piaget’s stages
Sensory motor (0-2)
Preoperational (2-7)
Pre-conceptual (2-4)
Intuitive (4-7)
Concrete operations (7-11)
Formal operations (11 –adult)
Gardner (1980)
Spontaneity of early creativity??
Stage 1: Preschoolers; instinctively creative.
Fresh and unusual expression
Stage 2: around 7 children’s imagination
appears stuck – stop creative process in
favour of language, games or peers
8-10 search for literal meanings rather than
metaphors: copy and collect
Literal thinking: emphasis on following rules
Stage 3: 15-25 convergence of the abilities to plan a creative
project, implement, and evaluate it. Most people at this time
place emphasis on fixed information or skills. Creative individual
stands out as taking risks, attempting new projects and
preserving individuality
3 year old ‘circles’
4 year old ‘baby in belly
Lowenfeld & Brittain (1987)
2-3 years – scribbling: beginning of self-expression
1½-2½ Sub stage: Disordered and random scribbling
2,2½-3 Sub stage: Controlled scribbling
3,3½-4 Sub stage: Named scribbling
4-7 pre-schematic
7-9 schematic: achievement of a form concept
9-12 dawning realism: the gang age
12-14 pseudo-naturalistic/realistic drawing
14-17 artistic decision: adolescent art
