Babies enjoy sensory feedback. Just as babies have a powerful instinct to walk, they have a powerful inclination to scribble. Both the activities unfold at about the same time and indicate enormous growth and maturity in babies.
Just the mere act of holding a crayon exhibit increased hand-eye coordination, and finger and hand dexterity. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to provide babies with safe opportunities and supplies so that they can practice their 'Early Doodling' skill.
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After reaching a year of age, toddlers usually begin producing scribbles. At this age, toddlers use crayons primarily for unintentional scrawling, large random arcs, and wavy lines. Toddlers mostly use almost all their body parts including shoulders and back to make marks. Hence, it is necessary to give them enough room to spread out as they scrawl.
Scribbling is the first step in using the skill the toddler will need later for writing. Therefore, it is essential to provide toddlers with 'Mark Making' areas, scribbling sessions, fine motor and gross motor activities to help them strengthen their little hand and finger muscles.
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At this age, toddlers' scribbling graduate to meaningful interpretations. While we may not be able to see any specific images or pictures, children will always have some meaning to the marks they have made. Scribbles will likely fill up more spaces in the paper.
The growing control the child has over the muscles of his hand encourage him/her to move the crayon or paint brushes with a purpose or a goal in mind. Children of this age often tend to make repeated marks. Most likely, in this age group, children make the transition to holding the crayon between their thumb and pointer finger.
The art and early writing skills for children are the same. Children at this age learn to imitate their first hand experiences. Therefore, one of the best way to help build the early writing skill is to give children a lot of opportunities to experiment with art materials, and involve them in a variety of activities to build up positive experiences.
Children at this age begin to understand that writing is made of lines, curves and repeated patterns. While they may be still learning to write actual letters and numbers, we may see components of letters and numbers in their drawings. Children now understand that drawings convey meaning. This is the stage when children make the transition from drawing and labeling their masterpieces to planning prior to drawing of what they want to create.
Children's first pictures are often built of irregular circles and strokes. They learn to use a lot of colors. Children gain an essential skill of symbolic thinking, in which they understand that the drawings on the page can be a symbol of something else. Positive exposure and hands-on learning experiences boost their imagination and creativity on the paper.
