essay on child drawing

The latest research on creativity and the arts

June 2014, Vol 45, No. 6

Print version: page 58

The latest research on creativity and the arts

Drawing improves children's moods by helping to distract them , find researchers at Brooklyn College and Boston College. Scientists induced a negative mood in 83 children — 43 who were ages 6 to 8 and 40 who were ages 10 to 12 — by having them recall a disappointing episode in their lives. Then, the youngsters drew either a scene related to the disappointing episode (the venting condition) or a neutral scene unrelated to it (the distraction condition). The children rated their moods both before and after the drawing activity. The researchers found that the children's short-term moods improved more in the distraction condition than in the venting condition. The researchers also examined whether distraction would have a stronger effect for younger than older children, given that younger kids report that they enjoy drawing more and see themselves as drawing more competently than older children. However, the "distraction" effect applied equally to both younger and older children, the team found ( Cognition and Emotion , April 2013).
Happiness and creativity go hand in hand , find researchers at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. The scientists randomly sampled the feelings and actions of 79 young adults over a week using automated cellphone surveys. People reported doing something creative around 20 percent of the time, and those who generally reported feeling happy and active were much more likely to be doing something creative in a given moment, such as making up their own recipes, writing, playing music or drawing. In addition, those who scored higher in openness to experience were much more likely to spend time on creative activities than others. The findings support a theory that everyday creative behavior is both a cause and an effect of positive psychological processes, according to the researchers ( Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts , online, Feb. 10).
Whether you brood or actively reflect helps determine whether you slump into depression or jump into creativity , finds a study led by a Georgia Institute of Technology scientist. In testing 244 college students, researchers examined how two types of self-focused rumination — brooding as opposed to self-reflective pondering, or purposefully turning inward to consider your life more analytically — were related to creativity or depressed mood. Brooding was linked to depressed mood but not to creativity, the team found. Self-reflective pondering was linked to creativity and not to depressed mood. The study provides further insight on a previous finding that rumination is a common denominator of creative behavior and depression ( Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts , online, Feb. 10).
People with different subtypes of bipolar disorder report similarly high levels of creativity during manic or hypomanic episodes , though they differ somewhat in the types of creative enterprises they seek out, finds a study by investigators at the University of New South Wales. The team compared self-reported creativity and illness patterns among 219 participants diagnosed with either bipolar I disorder or bipolar II disorder, which encompasses less severe mania (hypomania) than bipolar I disorder but involves more severe depression. Eighty-four percent of bipolar I patients reported being creative during a manic episode, compared with 81 percent of bipolar II patients during a hypomanic episode. In a subset of 69 participants, both subtypes reported greater creativity in writing, painting and work or business ideas, but bipolar II patients were more likely to draw and be musical. In addition, patients who said they had creative highs were significantly more likely to report creative personality styles in general ( Journal of Affective Disorders , December 2013).
People with different patterns of emotion regulation prefer different types of artistic subject matter , find researchers at the University of Rome–Sapienza. Scientists divided 100 adults into two groups, one that scored high and the other low on measures of alexithymia, a subclinical difficulty in experiencing, expressing and describing emotions. The participants were asked to evaluate 20 works of art on cognitive, emotional and aesthetic dimensions. Low-alexithymic participants preferred pictures showing excitation, such as Francesco Hayez's "The Kiss," which depicts a couple in a passionate embrace. High-alexithymic individuals were more likely to appreciate emotionally contained subjects, such as Edward Hopper's "Railroad Sunset," which features a dark, empty railroad depot against a stark though colorful sunset. The results indicate the need to include measures of emotional regulation in a comprehensive model of aesthetic experience, the researchers say ( Creativity Research Journal , July 2013).
Acting classes may help people avoid unhealthy emotional behaviors and adopt healthy ones , find two reports on the same study by researchers at Boston College. In one report, 28 adolescents who majored in acting at a performing arts high school engaged less in "expression suppression" — inhibiting their emotional expression in a way research shows is unhealthy over the long term — than 25 peers who majored in the visual arts or music. Meanwhile, 35 elementary school-age children were less likely to suppress emotional expression after 10 months of acting than 40 peers in a visual-arts class ( Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts , May 2013). An earlier report on the same study showed that the teens in acting classes improved both in empathy and in theory of mind — the ability to gauge others' intentional states, including whether they are different from your own — after a year of acting classes, and younger acting students gained in empathy. Peers in both age groups who took visual arts or music classes showed no such gains. The findings provide evidence that plasticity in empathy and theory of mind is possible long after what are considered the watershed ages of 3 to 4 years, the authors write ( Journal of Cognition and Development , online, Nov. 14, 2011).
Teens involved in after-school arts activities scored higher on depressive symptoms than those who were not involved in after-school arts , squaring with findings showing relatively high rates of mental illness in adult artists, find researchers at Boston College. In their sample of 2,482 15- and 16-year-olds, the researchers found a link between arts involvement and depression scores only in teens with working memory scores above the median. It has been proposed that shared cognitive traits — for example the failure to habituate normally to excessive stimuli, which in turn can lead to a sense of cognitive overload — may underlie both a propensity to practice art and associated mental illness. Strong working memory, as found in teens who are both involved in art and show depressive symptoms, may facilitate the adaptive use of these cognitive traits by allowing people to use additional information to produce meaningful artistic or creative products, the researchers note ( Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts , May 2013).

— Tori DeAngelis

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This essay was inspired by an Australian mother whose son, age eight, was feeling discouraged and wanted help in learning to draw better. She wanted to know how to help him. Observation drawing provides the method of choice. Of course observation drawing is not the only form of good drawing practice, but it is often the best way to develop drawing skills. Drawing from remembered experiences and drawing based on imagination are good to develop those aspects of thinking. Copy work drawing is not encouraged, but only tolerated if it is self-initiated. Many self-taught artists have learned by copying because it was the only alternative they knew about. However, copywork is not the best way to learn to draw actual objects, animals, scenes, and people For an attractively printed version of a previous version of this article with additional photographs, consider ordering a copy of the March, 2007 issue of Homeschooling Horizons Magazine . See an online book with eight drawing lessons. See 7th grade drawings from a class in Australia taught by a college student using methods described here. DRAWING and CHILDREN

C hildren who know me sometimes ask me how to draw better. Many children do not know that artists have learned to draw by doing observation-drawing practice. They often assume that you can draw or you can't. Of course this is true, but it is also true that nearly anybody can learn to draw at any age. Many children feel inferior about their own ability to draw. Too often no teacher or adult has ever helped them learn to make a proper observation. Most teachers have not been educated about teaching drawing. Some generalist teachers even say, "That's okay, I can't draw either." This is the opposite of good motivation. They would never dare say, "That's okay, I can't read and write. I just don't have the talent for it." I explain that drawing ability comes from practice. I call it "practice" so it isn't as intimidating as final products. This essay explains some practice processes that lead to better drawing skills. Sometimes children want to develop their practice into more elaborate finished work. I encourage their desire to finish some works, but I also affirm the need to do lots of practice that does not have to be finished work. I explain it by using music analogies. We practice piano a long time to learn some pieces. We don't worry two much about mistakes while we are learning, but eventually it is good to play a recital. Then I give them some proven ways to practice and encourage them to make a many choices as possible as they learn to draw. I never draw to show a child how to draw do something. If I would show a child how something is drawn, the child would get the idea that my drawing is the answer. The child would think that her job is to copy my drawing. Looking at my drawing is a very poor way to learn to see for yourself. I go over to the thing being observed. I run my finger slowly along the edge of the thing. While doing this, I encourage the child to begin drawing in the air (by pointing a finger toward my finger) as preliminary practice following the edge contour slowly as my finger moves. After practice in the air, the child practices on paper with a slow deliberate contour while NOT looking at the paper. I never draw on the child's paper. Learning to see is done by studying the thing, animal, or person being drawn - not by getting the teacher to correct the work. The student should own the whole process and product. I never ask a child to copy a picture made by me, by another artist, or by a camera. I have them practice from actual objects or models. When children do copy work for fun on their own, I do not condemn them for this, but I do withhold compliments for copied work, and I withhold all encouragement related to copy work. I encourage them to practice from actual objects - never working from pictures. Eliciting a careful description from the student We cannot draw what we do not notice. Before starting I take extra time to discuss some details of a small area where the student will start. This gives focus, familiarity, and confidence. Visual information is useless unless you notice it. I give instruction in the form of open questions rather than directions. "How much of this edge is straight and how much is curved?" "How much longer is this side than the top edge?" "What are the different lengths you get when you extend your arm and measure by holding the pencil across it in the air?" "How do the lengths compare?" "Isn't this a silly line? Can you see how it wiggles?" If I use questions, it implies that the teacher will not be needed in the future. Once the student knows the questions, the student can practice alone. If I give commands, the student might not feel empowered to work alone. Simplify but never dumb it down Sometimes we start with a small part of something that would otherwise seem much to too complex and overwhelming. Adding a bit at a time, I am often amazed at some of the elaborate drawings that a child can make. Think about the amazing thinking habits that are being fostered by this approach. Mistakes are normal I prepare them in advance for what to expect so that they can be pleased with what works rather than disappointed by what does not work. In blind contour line (drawing the outer edge of objects without looking at the paper) I let them know that I do not expect to get a better line, but I also expect that my line probably will not end up at the right place when it comes around to where it started. If it comes around and meets, it means that I just got lucky, or maybe I peeked at the paper (treat with humor). "Blind" contour drawing means drawing without looking at the paper, but only looking at the object. Blinders as drawing helpers I use a large blinder card on our pencil so we cannot see what is being drawn. I generally allow looking at the paper only when the pencil is stopped (when it is placed to start a new line). While the pencil moves, I do not allow looking down at the paper, but only looking at the edge of the object being observed and drawn. It is good to move the pencil very slowly and deliberately so that each little change of direction, notch, bump, zigzag, etc. can be included (as slow as and ant crawling). Not every drawing experience needs to be blind contour practice, but some regular practice using blind contour is a good way to discipline the mind to develop the skill of observation. With young children I often encourage them to use a blinder helper while they practice all the lines of the edges without concern for making a picture. This practice session is their preparation prior to drawing a picture on another paper or elsewhere on the same paper. This part is simply a jumble of practice lines. After this rehearsal, when they draw the picture, all the lines are already familiar and easier. Viewfinders as framing helpers A viewfinder, which can be a simple 2x2 inch empty slide frame, is useful to view the scene. For drawing, the viewfinder can be a piece of 8x10 inch cardboard with a rectangle cut out as a window about 3x4 inches. This student is using a viewfinder taped on a stick placed to frame some sunflowers. In the second view she is adding tomatoes seen from her position as she looks through the viewfinder window. This can be held at arms length or closer to help the student decide what to include in the drawing. We use it the same way you would frame a picture with a camera viewfinder. It can zoom closer (bending the arm) to give a wide angle. It can zoom out to create a telephoto framing (holding it with an extended arm). The window in the viewfinder (also called isolator) makes it easier for the student decide on what to include, how to arrange things, how to fit the paper, which way to turn the paper, and how large to make things in a drawing. A more advanced viewfinder might have black thread taped across the window to form a grid through which to view the scene, still life, animal, or person that is being observed. Mistakes Most of us need to get more comfortable with mistakes. I do not point out mistakes because the effect is not helpful. It works better to emphasize the things that are working well. However, children often notice mistakes themselves. I believe it is helpful for children to learn that the mistakes they see in their drawing are useful for learning and for getting new ideas. I tell children it is okay to erase and fix major mistakes, but I make a point to explain that I like to learn new things from my mistakes. I tell them that I often leave my mistakes until I am nearly finished with the whole thing. I first add the corrections until I figure it out. Sometimes the mistakes add some interest and expressive qualities that are hard to appreciate at first. Mistakes in drawing are often very perplexing. The child can see that something looks wrong, but does not know why. It would be easy for me to explain how I think it should be drawn. It would be easy for me to draw it for them. I must never do this. It is much more useful to use this as an opportunity to teach the child how to learn. When a child is puzzled is not the time to solve the puzzle for the child, it is the time to teach puzzle solving strategies. Learning how to build our own ability makes us much more capable than if we are handed answers. To make it easier, artists often practice with small sketches when they are planning the arrangement for a major work. Once they have decided on the layout, artists often practice details by making sketches that are about the actual size needed. Preliminary practice makes the final drawing easier to do. To solve a drawing mistake, I might ask a child to practice a certain part of the drawing on another paper. Often it helps make a discovery if a blinder is used. If they will repeat the practice three times they will have choices. I can ask the student to look at the three results and pick the idea that looks best to them (not to me). Good Mistakes Often mistakes are lucky gifts leading to creative ideas that we would otherwise have missed. When we approach this like we approach playing a game, we can even learn to enjoy it. This principle works for drawing and it works for teaching about mistakes as well. Truth is often found by mistake when we are open and alert enough to consider new possibilities. I did a web search for the word "serendipity". You can find a long list of extremely useful discoveries and inventions that nobody would have thought of had they not made a mistake or had an accident. We have all benefited from antibiotics. Antibiotics were first discovered because Alexander Fleming saw something unexpected but true in a careless mistake. He was a careful observer. Few things teach observation as well as drawing. As a potter, a soft clay vase accidentally fell on the floor from a board as I was carrying it. I looked at it, and it led me to a new class of work made to hang on the wall. Many mistakes in drawing can actually help the drawings take on an expressive, mysterious, or spontaneous quality that can be very evocative. How to respond to a child's drawing I look for some places where the lines or shapes work well. I enthusiastically affirm improvements and successes. I know that most children will stop drawing if I make any negative comments or tell them that they need to make corrections. Practice and learning only happens when there is a fair amount of satisfaction. I look for and point out improvement - not perfection. I use positive comments and questions that remind them of things to notice - not judgment. Instead of judging, I learn more about the thinking of children when I ask them to verbally elaborate about an area in their work. It helps me understand where they are in their perception of what they are observing. With observation questions I may be able to help them move to the next level. I can use this information in the next lesson because I can design a practice session that is more appropriate to their individual needs. Fear of drawing makes things come out smaller. I accept whatever size they produce, but I will encourage them to see if they can draw small things extra big. A child's shoe might be drawn large enough for a grown man. Sometimes I simply say, "How big do you need to draw it in order to fill the paper with this?" or "How big do you need it to fill the framed area with this?" When I see that something is too small, it lets me know how to plan the next practice session. MORE ADVANCED LEVELS?

Shading From contour drawing, we often move to shading. When doing this I make sure the lighting is fairly dramatic. It is important have the child take time do some detailed advance planning before starting to do the shading. Otherwise, the act of shading becomes automatic, and they forget to make observations as they work. I ask the child to find several levels of shaded tone on the thing being observed. I ask the student to identify the lightest places. We name these "highlights". The highlights are very lightly framed with a pencil line. These areas are generally left totally white. I ask the student to find the darkest places. In most cases the shadows at the base of objects. These become the darkest part of a shaded drawing. This page has some detailed instructions to practice for shading. https://www.goshen.edu/art/ed/shading.html For variety and fun, I sometimes have them start with a light pencil outline sketch and then shade by stippling the drawing with the points of small colored markers, intermixing colors. When the stippling is dry we erase all the pencil to show only pointillist form and color without line. Stippling is easy and does not ruin the picture if the child has a chance to practice it first in very small practice samples. I encourage them to practice by always combining several colors together making very close dots for darker tones and less frequent dots for lighter tones. What is shading about? If you want to see ideas about shading, turn off the lights and set an egg or a grape on a piece of white paper on a table near a window (not in direct sunlight). Sit and study it for several minutes to see the light changing the tones of the object. You may see light being reflected from the paper back into the shadow near the bottom of the object. Now look at the white paper under it and look for tone variations. Some people have never noticed these things. At a young age most children have never done this. We cannot expect to draw what we have not noticed. Why do some people appear to have drawing talent? A brain that learns to observe when it is young grows visual neurons that other brains lack. This is why we have a common misconception that drawing is an inborn talent. It is true that the drawing brain is different, but the difference has been learned and the brain has developed in response to being needed in these particular ways. When this happens at a young age, the child appears to have inherited talent. We now know that adult brains can also grow new neurons and foster new talents, but it can be to be slower and more difficult. As adults many of us have lost our love of learning for its own sake. Young children find these simple tasks to be new and fascinating. Elizabeth Layton began to develop her drawing talent when she was 68 year old. Gesture drawing Gesture drawing is an opposite form of observation drawing. While blind contour drawing begins with edges and requires slow deliberate drawing, gesture drawing starts in the center and the drawing tool very rapidly fills (coloring in) the body of the object with no outline, but the drawing still tries to follow the form of what is being observed. Gesture drawing is fast, intuitive, and expressive. This is the opposite of blind contour drawing (outline observation) that is very deliberate. Where blind contour drawing is slow, gesture drawing needs to be very very fast. Alternating sessions of gesture drawing with sessions of blind contour drawing will add greatly to the expressive quality of a child's work. Eventually, both styles can be combined to create some very effective, moving, expressive, and artistic outcomes. More gesture drawing details are described on this Portrait and Figure Drawing page in the section on Inside-Out Figure Gesture drawing. Kathe Kollwitz combined outline, shading and gesture drawing very expressively in this self-portrait where her arm motion is expressed as gesture. http://www.kunstikeskus.ee/info/pilt/uus_uudis_pilt/kollwitz.JPG Here she used pen and brush in her Mothers from 1921 (in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts) to enhance expressiveness with gesture. http://www.mystudios.com/women/klmno/kollwitz-mothers-1921.html

Gesture drawing is good for drawing people, animals, and objects that are active and in motion, or for content that is charged with emotional quality. Models are posed as though they are in action, playing in sports, or doing something with emotional content. It good to show joy, grief, dancing, sliding into first base, and so on. For all observation drawing, both contour drawing and gesture drawing, I want things to draw that are not part of the child's previously learned symbol set. A new observation requires more careful looking and should not allow for drawing a remembered shape or symbol that has been drawn many times before. A new observation employs a different part of the brain than drawing something that has been memorized. It helps to select something interesting to the child. Children can be encouraged to find toys, pets, and things around the house and garden that they have not used for drawings before. If it looks too simple, turn it different or move to a different position to make it a little challenging to draw. Sometimes I turn a familiar thing upside down to make it new again. We start with things that are not very complex, but also include a bit of uniqueness. As I write this I am having a snack. An apple with a bite removed is so much more interesting than a plain apple. You have to look at it to draw it. An apple that still has a leaf on the stem is more unique. However, if the leaf has a defect, it is even better. You have to look at it to draw it. An apple that is not all the same color is better. A deformed apple from a neglected tree is wonderful to draw. Some of the best subject matter comes from everyday common experiences such as the food we eat, our homes, our toys, our families, the neat stuff we collect, our friends, our games, our work, our animals, our neighborhoods, a trip to a zoo, a trip to a farmyard, and so on. A half eaten snack is evidence of life around it. Drawings do more than represent what is seen. They imply what is happening in a child's life. Drawing is a diary. Taste, touch, sound, and smell are all great multi sensory motivational enhancements. Eat some. Draw what is left. Eat what you drew. Practice. Express. Grow. Be. NOT EVERY DRAWING IS FROM OBSERVATION

Children also learn some great thinking skills by working from imagination , from inventing, from designing, and so on. Children are often interested in creating persuasive work related to social causes such as wild life protection, peace and justice, poverty, drug abuse, and so on. Some children love to design houses, machines, boats, cars, etc. Many children love to illustrate imagined stories. Imagined things are excellent for development of their creative thinking ability. Creative work is not all practical or utilitarian. Arranging color in an abstract beautiful way is very enjoyable and expressive for children. Musicians also use the word "play" when they "perform" with an instrument. We like the words "play around" when we are exploring and making thumbnail sketches for an idea in drawing or when designing something. Some people also make word lists to get ideas. Children often use drawings to tell stories from memories . With young children, I use lots of questions to get them to think of more memories related to the subject. If they are overly self-critical of their ability to do this, I tell them that I like to see their own special way of drawing things. As they get a bit older, I encourage the use of mirrors, models, and objects to work from to practice the parts of the compositions needed to tell or illustrate the stories. Artists often combine observation, imagination, and invention. Transfer of drawing skills An important type of creativity is the ability to transfer what we have learned in one situation to an appropriate application in another situation. I do not expect what is learned in observation drawing to immediately and naturally transfer and be reflected while drawing from imagination and experiences. Teachers are frequently disappointed to see children who can do impressive observation studies revert to simplified stereotype representations when they do not have something there to observe. What is achieved in observation drawing takes time and practice to be remembered and called up from memory when there is nothing to observe. It is natural for children to revert to their old habits, not remembering that they have learned a new way to represent something. A sensitive adult can ask them, "Do you remember when you drew that while you were looking at it? Do you remember the shape of it? Do you remember how the lighting changed the way it looked?" In some cases, when remembering to remember, the child will show significant changes in how things are rendered. Transfer of learning from one kind of drawing (observation) to other kinds of drawing (imagination and experience) is often improved by questions that create an expectation of transfer. Remembering new ways to represent while being imaginative and expressive may seem like a lot to ask, but many children are quite capable of multitasking when they enjoy learning, and if they are gently reminded of their own new skills. Developing habits of thinking that facilitate transfer of learning can be an important way to foster creative thinking. What better gift is there than to help a child learn that what is learned in one situation is often useful in many new and unexpected situations? This is very likely another thinking talent that is developed by growing neurons for this purpose. A three-year-old was drawing a picture of herself. When she was working on the fingers I noticed that she was typical in that she made multiple fingers without any concern for how many she drew. I knew that she was learning to count. Like most children of her age, she had never associated counting with drawing. I asked her: "Do you like to count the fingers as you draw them?" Without answering my question she started counting the fingers on her real hand, then after several attempts at counting the fingers in her dawning, she found that she had drawn six fingers on the hand. She reassuringly told herself, "Oh, that's okay." I told her that I agreed. I thought she had a wonderful attitude. When she drew the other hand, she naturally counted and made five digits. This one simple question, asked in a neutral way, may have helped her transfer knowledge. She started to make a connection between counting and drawing. Perhaps now her drawings from imagination could help her develop greater awareness of numbers and math--making her more talented at both of these things easier latter in school because of the new neurons that began to grow in her brain. HOW TO RELATE TO THE WORK OF OTHER ARTISTS

Even though the work of other artists may be very inspirational and very educational, I avoid showing the work of other artists as an introduction to doing artwork. I feel the suggestive power of the work may prevent them from doing as much of their own observing, thinking, imagining, remembering, etc. I feel it may lead them to feel their own work is not good enough to measure up. I believe that we as a species are programmed by instinct to imitate. This is a powerful instinct in all children. It is a good instinct for many things, but it runs counter to creativity. Children also have other good instincts such as imagination and curiosity. In my opinion, we do not need to encourage more imitation, but we do need to nourish the instincts of imagination, curiosity, and the natural instincts to search for truth. To encourage children to learn innovation and original observation may be a challenge, but the life-long benefits are well worth the effort. They will still learn many important things by imitation - but unless they are encouraged, many will not learn the joy, thinking habits, and rewards they get by learning the methods of thinking used in innovation. Art history shows the heights to which artists have aspired. It exemplifies high quality and it helps us learn about other cultures we can scarcely imagine. Art history reminds us of the many important purposes for art. I teach art history, museum visits, and so on after children have done similar work, or we do these activities completely independent of creative work. By studying the other artist's work as an independent activity or after doing the media work we do not diminish the importance of their own experience as being foremost as content for their own art. During the viewing of art history exemplars, I use lots of open questions phrased to help children look for more things in the historic work. If I want them to do related work, they do their own related artwork first (based on their own observations, experiences, or imaginations). This provides an immediate and relevant frame of reference for the other artist's work. Their own work makes them more interested in the work. They can identify with the minds of the artists better. The same questions used during their work can be asked while viewing the historical work. Even though they are doing media work prior to the study of art history, I often see influences from other artists in their work if they have had positive museum and art history experiences in the past. This is no problem so long as their primary thinking is based on their own observations, imaginations, and experiences. WHAT TO DO WITH YOUR CHILD'S COMPLETED WORK

I suggest saving a child's drawings in a folder in order to keep a record. Periodically, look back to see progress. Point out and affirm progress to the child. I try to make specific points when using compliments or praise. Connect it to some specific qualities that are explained to the student. When children are very young, I simply invite them to tell me about their drawings. I feel that the story telling is very good practice for them. Even children who are only two and are simply scribbling are able to tell me a story about their drawings. I think this practice in verbal improvisation grows verbal neurons that help make them talented at reading, writing, and speaking. Be sensitive about exhibiting the work. In a school setting it is better to display all or none of the work of an assignment. Teachers should put the lesson objectives with the displays. Student artwork may have some artistic merits, but learning is the main purpose of it. So far as exhibiting things at home, some feel that exhibiting something that is particularly strong could create fear in the child. The child might fear that it is too hard to always do as well as the one that was selected. I would be sensitive to this, but I also think it is encouraging when children see the work being displayed. Children who enjoy drawing may enjoy making their drawings into picture books of original drawings. You may wish to publish scans and photos of your child's artwork as a book. A number of online publishers can help with this (including Bob Books ). Children can help with much of the choice-making and learn do other aspects of it as well. Software for digital photos and scans are great tools that help children learn framing, contrast, tone, color balance, imaginative image manipulation, and other choices. On BECOMING TALENTED In my experience, most parents need to be more affirmative and less critical of their children's drawings. Correcting a child's drawing mistakes can easily stop their interest in drawing. Children who get affirmation often continue to practice much more on their own. In drawing, just as in most other aspects of discipline, education, and child rearing, we need to stop saying no (unless there is an immediate hazard). It has been found that parents that use a preponderance of prohibitions are more apt to have children who fail in school. They lack attention span because they gave up on trying to imagine good things to do. On the other hand, those with positive choice conditioning, seem to be better prepared to make healthy choices as teens. Learning to draw is only a small part of growing up. There are many other important talents. In good parenting, I believe we need to change every negative behavior to a positive with choices. We need to provide awareness questions that suggest better alternatives from which children can learn to make their own good choices. When we say no or when we criticize, we discourage, we destroy motivation, we shorten the child's attention span, and we handicap their capacity for self-learning. Unless they are self-motivated, which happens most when they feel some assurance that they are doing well, brain neurons for abilities and talents fail to develop. In good parenting we try not to declare absolute answers, but we use open ended questions to encourage good ideas. We offer positive alternatives and options. Children are encouraged to choose from between positive alternatives. Instead of being discouraged by prohibitions, kids grow up enjoying wholesome participatory creative play alone and with friends. They make things, they play games, they participate in sports, they engage in music, they invent recipes, and they spend lots of time in art activities becoming talented way beyond their parents. I know this works because it happened in our home. It happened by chance because our kids had a mother who had an amazing parenting instinct. She never said, "Stop it!" She did not say, "No!" unless they were in immediate danger. Whenever the kids were behaving badly she coached them with interesting and enjoyable ideas and asked them to select better positive alternatives. Some were suggested by her, but they also learned how to invent good activities on their own. They became better players. They became conditioned to imagine and self-initiate positive choices as a part of their personalities. One chose writing and the others chose science. They use their talents well as they search and express the truths they find. They have the ability to imagine ways to do things better--making the world a better place for all. All Rights Reserved: © 2002 to 2016 versions, Marvin Bartel. Anyone may print one copy of this essay for personal use. Those who wish to make copies or publish any part of this electronically or otherwise must get permission to do so. Your responses are invited. You may make a link to this page. Please do not request a link exchange unless you have already created a link to this page. Any quotation or reference to this page must include a link to this page.

https://www.goshen.edu/~marvinpb/lessons/rabbit.html

https://www.goshen.edu/art/ed/artlsn.html

© 2010 is available as a digital self-instructional book for children who are old enough to read. It can be printed or you can read it on the computer or iPad. It is written for children, but parents and teachers will also find it useful.

first posted: March 29, 2002 This version was updated on May 2, 2016

Visit these pages for more secret learning and thinking strategies Art Education Links Marvin Bartel, Ed.D. in art education, Emeritus Professor of Art

The Developmental Magic of Children’s Drawing

New research shows that picture book reading promotes drawing..

Posted May 24, 2018

Co-authored with Dr. Jeremy Sawyer, postdoctoral fellow at Temple University

Children love to draw. Across countries and societies, even if the only materials available are a stick and dirt, children create pictures, images, and scenes, animating them with stories and intentions. [1] Children beginning at age 1, and throughout childhood , spend hours engrossed in coloring, doodling, and drawing all varieties of realistic and fantastic images. Children’s drawings are often visually striking, and have long fascinated psychologists, who have seen in them clues to personality , emotions, and mental development. [2] Drawings are a window into children’s remarkable creativity and blossoming artistic sensibilities. Their logical reasoning and symbolic representation also grow as children grapple with how to render the world and the people around them in two-dimensions. Drawing can enhance children’s spatial awareness, promote their STEM learning [3] and even help children regulate emotions during times of stress ! [4] Psychologist Lev Vygotsky wrote that drawing is part of symbolic communication system that includes speaking, reading, and writing as it unfolds through development. [5] In a very real sense, children’s scribbles, doodles, and sketches serve as a developmental bridge between spoken and written forms of language.

But how can parents and teachers help foster children’s drawings? Should they? And what would such help look like? While specialized art classes certainly teach specific drawing techniques, [6] what about everyday activities in early childhood settings like block play, dramatic play, and storybook reading? Can these have a positive impact on children’s drawing? To find out, we ran an 8-week, 23-session intervention with 91 preschoolers in a Head Start summer program. Children were randomly assigned to one of three interventions: storybook reading, block building, or dramatic pretend play games. Children drew during each session, and we measured the effects of these activities on important aspects of children’s drawing in terms of artistic skill or cognitive capacities. Judges rated children’s pictures on five dimensions: creativity, talent, spatial complexity, use of color, and human content. Included in this post are some exemplary drawings from children in the study, published in the journal Empirical Studies in the Arts.

Our results showed that children’s overall drawing performance (a composite of all five drawing dimensions) improved over the 8-week intervention. While initially skilled drawers improved more than children who were initially less skilled, all children made gains. Of the three activities, storybook reading was the most beneficial for children’s overall drawing growth. The work of children in the storybook reading group were rated highest in creativity, talent, and spatial complexity, while children’s drawings from the block building group – which used a variety of colorful blocks to build various structures – were rated best in use of color. While dramatic play games did not help children’s drawing as much as the other activities, children in this intervention were rated equal to the others in human content – perhaps reflecting the emphasis on human characters and role play involved in this activity.

What made storybook reading the most beneficial activity for children’s drawing? When we analyzed videos of the storybook reading condition, we found that the instructors running the group asked children a lot of questions about the book’s illustrations. While reading the story, they stopped briefly to raise questions about the colors, spatial layout, and plot elements depicted in each picture. Children were then given a chance to engage in short answers and discussions about these elements. We think that because illustrations are so important in children’s literature, and adults guided children’s attention to the details of those illustrations, children were able to further develop their sense of what skilled drawings look like. Then, after closely considering the style and meaning of these high-quality illustrations, children were able to advance the creativity, complexity, and realism of their own drawings. In other words, they shifted from observing to creating!

Because drawing connects with children’s cognitive, emotional, and symbolic development, as well as spatial and STEM learning, it is useful to know what kind of activities – outside of formal art classes – can foster its development. Our study suggests that parents and teachers might consider paring storybook reading with drawing activities. Emphasizing the colors, shapes, story elements, overall artistry of the illustrations in children’s books may give children inspiration and ideas for enriching their own drawings. While most psychological research has focused on what children’s drawings tell us about the child, we think that further exploring what activities help to grow our children’s drawing skills is time well spent.

*As a note, white boxes are not original, but are inserted for anonymity on drawings.

[1] Gardner, 1982; Winner & Gardner, 1981

[2] Koppitz, 1966; Piaget, 1963

[3] Uttal, Miller, & Newcombe, 2013

[4] Drake, Hostedt, & James, 2016

[5] Vygotsky, 1978

[6] For an excellent book on what drawing classes teach children, see Studio Thinking: The Real Benefits of Visual Arts Education

Thalia R. Goldstein, Ph.D., is an associate professor of Applied Developmental Psychology at George Mason University researching children's role play, pretend, and acting.

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A new theory on children’s drawings: Analyzing the role of emotion and movement in graphical development

The aim of this paper is to develop a new understanding of children’s drawings and to provide ideas for future research in early childhood. Starting from classic theories on child graphical development, we proceed to analyze them and provide our own views on the subject. We will also recount a number of relevant empirical studies that appear to validate our theory. Our belief is that emotion and self-expression through movement play a key role in the development of child art, and that this may be already visible during the scribbling stage of drawing.

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Σοφια Μαγαλιού

Wirawani Kamarulzaman

Children’s drawings were studied to discover cognitive and social abilities of children. Children’s development is also identified through drawings. A number of theories were developed on the development of children’s drawings. The purpose of the study is to compare drawings done by 5-year-old and 8-year-old children with Lowenfeld’s theory on stages of art development since none is found in Malaysia. Qualitative method was used in the study, where observation and interviews were done in collecting data. The children were observed when they draw and interviews were done afterwards in order to find out what was drawn. Findings indicate that the drawings made were incongruent with the theories of development. The theory was found to be applicable to Malaysian children as well.

Nathaniel O Iotti

Although the scribbling stage of drawing has been historically regarded as meaningless and transitional, a sort of prelude to the “actual” drawing phase of childhood, recent studies have begun to re-evaluate this important moment of a child's development and find meaning in what was once considered mere motor activity and nothing more. The present study analyzes scribbling in all its subphases and discovers a clear intention behind young children's gestures. From expressing the dynamic qualities of an object and the child's relationship with it, to gradually reducing itself to a simple contour of a content no more “alive” on the paper, but only in the child's own imagination, we trace the evolution of the line as a tool that toddlers use to communicate feelings and intentions to the world that surrounds them. We will provide a selected number of graphical examples that are representative of our theory. These drawings (13 in total) were extracted from a much wider sample derived from our studies on children's graphical-pictorial abilities, conducted on children aged 0–3 years in various Italian nurseries. Our results appear to indicate that scribbling evolves through a series of stages, and that early graphical activity in children is sparked and maintained by their relationship with their caregivers and the desire to communicate with them.

françois gaillard

Sorin Solomon

We have endeavored in this research to probe the earliest instances in which the young child relates representational mental activity to" drawings". Our hope, which turned out to be justi ed, was that the features of the rst scribbles might encode simple mind events (" changes of mind") through equally simple recognizable features in the drawing process (" breaking points").

Fotini Bonoti

The aim of the present study was to investigate possible age differences in drawing performance of preschool and pri-mary school children, as well as in metacognitive experiences that are activated before and after the drawing process. The study comprised of 222 children of both genders, aged from 4 to 12. They were tested individually in their schools. They were asked to produce four drawings, which vary on their level of complexity, and to rate before each drawing on a four-point scale the frequency of drawing similar themes and their feeling of difficulty. After the drawing they were asked to estimate again the difficulty they felt as well as the feeling of liking the drawing they produced and the correctness of the drawing. The results of a series of analyses of variance confirmed the expected improvement of drawing performance with age. There wasn’t found, however, the same developmental course in the case of metacognitive experiences. On the contrary, there was found a significant decrease in the feeling of liking and the estimation of correctness of the drawings, especially after the second grade.

Children's drawings have been studied as indicating intellectual development, expressing emotional life, revealing environmental experience, stressing problem-solving activities, but more rarely as showing the child's artistic talents. There are two ways of considering objets d'art: analysing and just enjoying. The present book offers both, by showing two sets of constrained and free drawings by the same children. The first part of the book presents a thorough experiment on the development of constructional praxia which are compared with apraxia, i.e. acquired disability through brain injury in adults. The second part shows the free drawings' gallery from the same children who took part in the first experiment. It clearly appears that the two skills, the constructional praxic ability and the free artistic expression, do not evolve in parallel. Very skilled children often are poor artists and the observer can find aesthetic drawings in young and praxically unskilled c...

Eirini Papadaki

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Seeing: Visually Analysing Children’s Art

First Online: 23 February 2021

Cite this chapter

Anna Hickey-Moody 9 ,
Christine Horn 9 ,
Marissa Willcox 9 &
Eloise Florence 9

Part of the book series: Studies in Childhood and Youth ((SCY))

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The original version of this chapter was revised: The misplaced captions of Figures 3.6 and 3.7 have been swapped. The correction to this chapter is available at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68060-2_7

Initially figured as ‘outside’ the normal confines of fine art institutions, children’s art has since been examined as a source of pure creativity and expression, free from the constraints of adult society. This chapter offers ways of analysing children’s art that are attuned to the creative and complex ways child art is produced. Our analysis moves beyond developmental frameworks of childhood to argue that interpretations of children’s art can provide insights into complex and emotionally charged experiences of children. Through analysing children’s art created in the first year of the Interfaith Childhoods workshops, we argue that children construct detailed descriptions of the ways in which they see themselves and their environments, peers and community, making it possible to reconsider the agency we give to material expressions of the self made by children.

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Analyzing Children ’ s Drawings

Hsu , Ya-Huei
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MSU Extension

The art of creating: why art is important for early childhood development.

Kylie Rymanowicz, Michigan State University Extension - January 22, 2015

Art exploration is not only fun and entertaining, but also educational. Here are some tips for growing your budding artist.

Support your child’s artistic journey with these tips. Photo credit: Lenchensmama | MSU Extension

Children are naturally curious. From the minute they gain control of their limbs, they work to put themselves out into the world to see how it all works. They explore, observe and imitate, trying to figure out how things operate and how to control themselves and their environments. This unrestricted exploration helps children form connections in their brain, it helps them learn—and it’s also fun.

Art is a natural activity to support this free play in children. The freedom to manipulate different materials in an organic and unstructured way allows for exploration and experimentation. These artistic endeavors and self-directed explorations are not only fun, but educational as well. Art allows youth to practice a wide range of skills that are useful not only for life, but also for learning.

Skills youth practice when participating in art activities include:

Fine motor skills . Grasping pencils, crayons, chalk and paintbrushes helps children develop their fine motor muscles. This development will help your child with writing, buttoning a coat and other tasks that require controlled movements.
Cognitive development . Art can help children learn and practice skills like patterning and cause and effect (i.e., “If I push very hard with a crayon the color is darker.”). They can also practice critical thinking skills by making a mental plan or picture of what they intend to create and following through on their plan.
Math skills. Children can learn, create and begin to understand concepts like size, shape, making comparisons, counting and spatial reasoning.
Language skills. As children describe and share their artwork, as well as their process, they develop language skills. You can encourage this development by actively listening and asking open-ended questions in return. It is also a great opportunity to learn new vocabulary words regarding their project (i.e., texture).

In addition to helping youth develop important skills, free expression is also good for overall health and well-being. Giving your child a creative outlet can help relieve stress and work through things happening in their lives. By encouraging artistic expression, you can help facilitate learning.

Want to support your child’s artistic journey? Here are a few tips from Michigan State University Extension :

Talk with your child about their work. It’s often hard to decipher a child’s drawings, even though the child knows exactly what it is. When we ask, “What is it?” we are saying that it should look like something we’d recognize. Instead, ask open-ended questions like “Tell me about your picture.” You can also describe specific things your child is doing by saying things such as, “You’re making short lines, I see you are using red, green and blue.” You can also describe the actions your child is taking or the materials they are using by saying things such as, “You are using a soft paintbrush, I noticed you are making small circles, you are using two crayons at the same time!”

Imitate your child . Instead of drawing your own picture, sit down with your child and imitate their actions. Make big scribbles, small lines or practice drawing circles. If your child is focused on what you are drawing or how “good” your picture is, they are less likely to be imaginative and creative on their own.
Provide choices . Gather a wide range of materials for your child to use like paint, colored pencils, chalk, play dough, markers, crayons, oil pastels, scissors and stamps. Mix it up by bringing in unexpected materials like Q-tips, dinosaurs, dry pasta or beans.
Support, don’t lead. Have you ever noticed that activities become much less fun when they are dictated by someone else? The same goes for kids—let them decide what materials they want to use and how and when to use them. Maybe they want to peel the paper off a crayon and use it lengthwise on the paper, instead of writing with the tip.
Keep it open-ended. Instead of sitting down with a specific plan or outcome in mind, let your child explore, experiment and use their imaginations. They might make a big mess or change their mind several times—this is all part of the creative process.
Focus on the process, not the product . Encouraging your child in the action of unstructured art helps them work with intrinsic motivation. It teaches them to express themselves freely, without worrying about what others think. If a lot of attention is given to the final product or we spend a lot of energy praising the end result, a child may be more likely to do things to get your approval instead of doing what they want to do. Part of focusing on the process involves encouraging effort; exploration and effort are more important than the end product. Notice their hard work!
Let it go. As long as a child is safe (i.e., not running with scissors), let them explore. They may spend the majority of the time sharpening colored pencils instead of actually drawing with them. Children learn through playing, exploring and trial and error. When we give them freedom to discover, they are learning to create and experiment in new and innovative ways.

Get your child creating and learning—all you’ll need is a paintbrush and an open mind.

For other articles on child development, parenting and more, visit the MSU Extension website.

This article was published by Michigan State University Extension . For more information, visit https://extension.msu.edu . To have a digest of information delivered straight to your email inbox, visit https://extension.msu.edu/newsletters . To contact an expert in your area, visit https://extension.msu.edu/experts , or call 888-MSUE4MI (888-678-3464).

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A Child's Drawing: Stages and Development

Introduction

A kid’s first introduction to drawing happens when they read books, where they see many pictures in vibrant colours. When we give a crayon or pencil to a small kid, they try to draw these pictures. But their scribbling does not make any sense to us. Although the kids’ drawing may not have any shape or it only represents a single line, this is their initial step towards drawing.

Young children draw in different ways, and each of them has its distinct characteristics. While some may grow up to become great artists, we cannot deny the fact that all of us had drawing as a favourite pastime during our childhood. In this short essay about drawing, we will discuss how children develop a fancy towards drawing and how it helps in their growth.

Drawing as a Hobby

As children grow up and start picking things, we give them colouring books and crayons to engage them. At first, their colouring may not be perfect as they will mix up colours, and it may go out of the boundaries. But gradually, they will learn to hold a crayon and carefully colour the pictures. During a later stage of their growth, we replace colouring books with drawing books, and they start drawing lines, shapes and pictures. It is from this point that children take drawing as a hobby, and this short essay about drawing will discuss its benefits and importance.

Kids might begin drawing simple objects that they see around. Sometimes, it’s a flower, house, tree or car. Later on, they start drawing people and buildings. Eventually, they draw something from their imagination, for which we will have to give them a new name. This is how drawing as a hobby motivates kids to think beyond their capabilities and give an artistic form to their ideas.

Importance of Drawing

Although we indulge kids in drawing to occupy themselves, it has far more advantages than we see, which this essay drawing deals with. While kids have to learn many subjects, drawing gives them a respite from all the tensions and worries as they lose themselves in a different world. It is a great way to fight boredom and find relaxation as well.

In terms of skills, drawing enables kids to develop fine motor skills. As drawing involves fingers, hands and wrists, kids will be able to improve their motor skills easily. Besides, children will be able to grasp concepts quickly through drawing. Suppose you need to teach the difference between big and small or tall and short. With the help of drawing, you can simply show them the difference, and your kids will start differentiating them while creating pictures. Drawing can also enhance the concentration of children. As they tend to observe the minutest details, we can see that kids try to give details to their drawing, and this, in turn, helps them to focus better. Thus, this short essay about drawing from BYJU’S will be useful to teach children how drawing is the best way to boost their creativity and imagination.

What are some of the ways to improve kids’ drawing skills?

The only way to improve your kid’s drawing skills is to practise every day. We must not force children to create perfect drawings. Instead, we can encourage them to draw whatever comes to their mind. If your child finds it difficult to draw, ask them to indulge in freehand drawing or trace pictures from books. In this way, we can improve their drawing skills.

How does drawing contribute to a child’s development?

Drawing is an effective way to develop children’s fine motor skills and creativity, as they will be using their hands and minds to draw on paper. Moreover, they will retain their focus, as they will be concentrating on their art.

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What I Learned from Looking through My Childhood Artworks

Casey Lesser on her first day of pre-school, 1993.

Drawing by Casey Lesser.

This past August, I was summoned via text message to spend a few hours clearing out my mom and dad’s basement. Their house, on a quiet, porch-lined street in Brooklyn, is where most of my childhood took place. I lived there from the time when I was a curious, well-behaved 5-year-old who loved crafting, playing soccer, and hunting for snails to the time I moved out on my own, as a wide-eyed college grad with a liberal arts degree under my belt, and a master’s on the horizon. In the time in between, an accumulation of things from my schooling, travels, and artmaking pursuits had claimed valuable space in my generous parents’ home, and it was finally time to go through it. The most daunting part of the task ahead was to parse through—and part with—my childhood artworks.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been making things. One of my earliest memories is creating a papier-mâché snake—with red skin and black spots—during a “mommy and me” art class at Pratt Institute. As a toddler, I had a miniature easel, where I avidly painted. I could also often be found cutting up magazines and catalogues ( Oriental Trading was my favorite) for collaging, or crafting gaudy necklaces with candy-colored beads or googly-eyed finger puppets with fuzzy hair. Like many children, I spent a lot of time drawing with my 64-pack of Crayola crayons. And around first or second grade, when I got my hands on Sculpey—a polymer clay that hardens when you bake it in the oven, a concept I found magical—I became obsessed with sculpting miniature cakes, ice cream cones, bunnies, and teddy bears.

As I grew up, my creative impulse wavered, but never that much. It perked up in school, where I was lucky to always have art classes and summer camps—one year as a preteen, I took classes in analog photography, puppet-making, and Ukrainian Easter egg decorating. In college, my love for ceramics, which I still practice today, was cemented. My ever-supportive parents didn’t hold onto my whole creative output (the spotted papier-mâché snake was just one of the casualties), but they did keep a lot—which I was touched by on that day in August.

I tore into the task of discarding my childhood effects with efficiency, saving the things that held solid sentimental value and trashing the junk that was just taking up space (let’s face it—Brooklyn real estate is a precious commodity). I easily parted with old notebooks, exams, essays, and a giant cache of printed sources that informed my undergraduate thesis on Pablo Picasso ’s Guernica (1937). I saved some of my earliest writing samples, birthday cards from my grandparents, and my acceptance letter into college. But I paused when I pulled out an amorphous green finger-painting, a collage of a cat, and a colored-pencil drawing of a smiling butterfly—I had a soft spot for these early spurts of creativity.

That’s not to say I kept them all. Given the quantity—dozens and dozens of pieces—and my career, which has me looking at art constantly, I set the bar high for what was good enough to keep. I got rid of around half, discarding redundant pieces (I drew a lot of cats), slapdash drawings, and silly projects—like a book I wrote and illustrated about a humanoid carrot who went on vacation. When I was done, I’d whittled down my adolescent possessions to a tidy pile of boxes.

I didn’t think much of the experience until a month later, when one of my Google alerts directed me towards an article in The Atlantic , with a headline that caught my eye: “ Throw Your Children’s Art Away .”

In the article, author Mary Towsend recalls the recent experience of reckoning with her own childhood artwork, then coming to the realization, as a mother, that she doesn’t need to keep everything her children make. She surmises that the act of making art is more important that the actual artwork, and a parent’s urge to keep it has more to do with wanting to hold onto memories.

“Throwing it away actually does everyone a favor,” Townsend writes. “It completes the artistic life cycle, allowing ephemera to be just that: actually ephemeral. Childhood is like that, too—or that’s how parents ought to think about it. Kids thrash about until a more recognizable self takes hold. Then they turn their attention toward preserving that developing self. The paperwork they produce along the way is mostly a means to that end.” She concludes that art created before age seven is particularly ripe for trashing, and that you shouldn’t discard something your child wants to keep.

Self-portrait by Casey Lesser.

Townsend’s points rang true to me, but I was still glad to have my earliest artistic pursuits tucked away safely in my parents’ basement. Soon after, I decided to take another look at my artwork. I was thinking about the value of children’s drawings and paintings, and what they could say, or express, about a person during that incredibly formative part of life.

Teachers, psychologists, and doctors have long toiled over interpreting children’s drawings, analyzing them as tools to measure a child’s social, communication, and motor skills, while also using them to tap into their mind and get a sense of their emotional state, self-esteem, and family life. Given my lack of expertise in this area, and the warnings some experts make against over-analyzing children’s drawings, I decided to look at the artworks as whole compositions, rather than a melange of symbols for decoding.

I went about this by pulling out some broad themes from artworks I’d created between preschool and fourth grade. There’s a small body of abstract pieces, some self-portraits and drawings of friends and family in journals, an outsize quantity of cat drawings and paintings, and a cache of optimistic, blue-skied paintings.

The early abstract works are clearly preschool projects. One piece, with loops of black-and-white paint overlaid with a spray of confetti, is likely the result of dipping marbles in paint, then running them across the sheet of paper. Another piece, from the same year, made with cray-pas on black construction paper, could be read as a landscape—though I could have just enjoyed the satisfying sensation of running soft crayons across construction paper.

From what I can tell, by age three or four, I’d begun more representational works. The earliest ones are blob-like characters that, with a few tweaks, could represent dramatically different things, from a roly-poly feline to Princess Jasmine from the film Aladdin (1992), whom I idolized. A self-portrait I made during kindergarten is a crayon drawing with spare scrawls of brown hair, a curving pink swoop of a mouth, blue bug-eyes, and a peach-colored beak of a nose, all over a beige scribble of pale skin. After years of light exposure to the paper, the large pink bow I made a point of drawing on my head is barely visible. It’s accompanied by my kindergarten musings about Bugs Bunny and the seven cats that belonged to my upstairs neighbors in the first home I lived in.

I’ve never owned a cat (nor do I wish to as an adult), but as a child, I was obsessed with the creatures, in part, I think, because I couldn’t have one—my mom is allergic to them. So, I channeled my passion into my artmaking. I drew the real cats who lived upstairs, like Tut, an fuzzy orange-colored troublemaker who was prone to escaping and went for walks on a leash; the elegant white Persians I saw in Fancy Feast advertisements; and myself dressed up as a black cat for Halloween (my preferred costume for several years). A personal favorite is a rendering of a stoic tomcat made from three pieces of tangerine-colored tissue paper and a black pen.

My cat-drawing practice was bluntly thwarted around second grade, when my art teacher grew frustrated with my friend and I for constantly drawing and painting cats. She was convinced it was fueling a rash of copying (I’m sure she was right), so cats were no longer allowed in art class.

I also drew portraits of my family. In a first-grade journal, I used crayons to capture the likeness of myself, my mom, and my dad, huddled together with outstretched arms, in monochromatic outfits; above us is a failed attempt to draw my brother that I’d scratched out, perhaps unhappy with the placement. (If I were psychoanalyzing these drawings, the all-black outfit and potentially grim expression I’d drawn on my brother might raise a flag, but looking back on our genial relationship, I know that’d be a false alarm.)

My Sculpey sculptures—miniscule objects that mostly only survived because my mom kept them in a shadow box hanging on the wall for many years—are more illustrative of the development of my artmaking abilities. While a pale blue mouse isn’t much to look at, later pieces, like a small wizard and a thumb-sized layer cake, are delightful. As I got better at handling the pliable, colorful clay, I’d challenged myself to work smaller and smaller, evidenced by a small rabbit the size of my pinky nail.

Sand painting with glitter by Casey Lesser.

While a fascinating next step (for me, at least) would be to have these artworks psychoanalyzed by an expert, left to my own devices, I found the exercise to be a fruitful and cathartic way to trace my trajectory into adulthood. While they may be based on naïve whims, these early creations are somewhat transportive, sending me back to the joyous experience of making art as a child, when I wasn’t concerned with how it would be seen or judged by others. It was no revelation to see the physical remnants of my feline fascination, but it was a joy to be reminded of how encouraging my parents have always been (even when I wanted to get a master’s degree in art history). Plus, as a 28-year-old who writes about creativity for a living, it was fun to turn the lens on myself. I can’t help but think that still having pieces so many years later has contributed to my ongoing hunger for creative fulfillment.

While I probably wouldn’t know what I was missing if my parents’ hadn’t kept the artworks I made before age seven, it is pretty cool to be able to hold a glittering sand painting that my tiny hands made a quarter-century ago. I may feel differently when I’m a parent—who knows—but for now, I’m going to hold onto what I’ve salvaged. And I might even turn to my cat drawings the next time I need some creative inspiration.

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The Psychology Of Children’s Artwork

The psychology of children’s artwork: what your child’s drawings can reveal.

When kids draw they use a dose of imagination, paired with their real life experiences. Unlike adults, who think too deeply about everything, children do not sensor their artwork based on what people might think of it. Typically, they just draw whatever comes to mind; this is what makes kids’ artwork extremely telling. Since kids love to draw and do so often, art is a method of physiological analysis that is readily available and easy to obtain.

Parents often worry about the content of their kid’s artwork, curious if they should be concerned over certain details. In many cases, concerns are not needed since children are known to draw very odd things from time to time. Here we discuss what your child’s pictures mean, as well as signs you should or should not be concerned about your child’s artwork.

The Most Telling Drawing Of All: The Family Portrait

When a child draws a picture of their family they include a lot of telling information, such as their relationship with their parents, how they feel at home, and more. The way a child interprets their family can be identified in the details of their drawing.

Dr. Roger Mills-Koonce recently led a study in conjunction with Bharathi Zvara at UNC-Chapel Hill in which children were asked to draw a portrait of their family using markers and paper. Most kids completed their creation within 10 minutes are less.

Researchers found children who drew themselves further away from their parents, and much smaller in size, were more likely to live in a chaotic home environment full of noise, crowding, clutter, and an overall lack of structure.

When a home is loaded with chaos, parents have less time to spend with their children and parent child interactions are likely to be interrupted just as a child starts having fun. As a result, children develop a depreciated sense of self, hence why they may draw themselves extremely small and far away from their other family members. Dr. Mills-Koonce is careful not to blame parents for these issues, and instead blames the root of the problem on often-uncontrollable factors, such as poverty.

Child psychologist Dr. Martin T. Stein wrote an article for Parents Magazine detailing his own experiences using children’s drawings of their family to better understand his patients. In one example he cites, an 11-year old patient drew a sketch of her and her mother together, the two were sketched side-by-side, with a string held between both of their hands to connect them. The little girl had grown up with only her mother and struggled to make friends. The drawing was a breakthrough for Dr. Stein, allowing him to show the girl’s mother just how attached she was, so much so it was getting in the way of her other interactions. ( Read full story here )

Children that draw every family member with slightly different characteristics are showing signs of advanced intelligence, and an understanding that every person in their family is a unique individual. A common difference children use to signify different family members is size. If one member is vastly larger than the others you can use this as an opportunity to ask if that particular family member is the leader of the family team.

The activities that a child draws a family participating in are also informative in regards to how they interpret everyday life. Children are not professional artists and usually you have to ask them what is going on in a picture to fully understand. Their explanations can be just as telling as the picture itself. If a child explains that their family is working together to complete an activity this is a clear sign that they feel like a team working to accomplish goals with their family members.

What Your Child’s Self-Drawn Portraits May Reveal

When children draw sketches of themselves they include a lot of important details. The way that a child depicts themselves with pen and paper identifies how they feel about their own self and overall image. Insecurity and inner-conflict can often be identified in the details of a self-drawing. The size your child draws themselves as, and shading certain body parts darker than other parts, are both signs your child might have an altered perspective on how they see themselves. Children that routinely draw themselves wearing a sad expression may also be experiencing inner-conflict.

Inappropriate Sketches: Children Drawing Private Parts & Violence

If your 3-year-old creates a drawing of a woman with exaggerated private parts you might feel cause for concern. The thing is, children are curious individuals that may draw what seems inappropriate simply because they are trying to figure things out for themselves. Around 3-years-old children start to become more aware of different body parts, and it is a normal part of childhood development for children to draw images that are sexual in theme from time to time. That is, unless the images depict things they should have no way of knowing about yet.

Many years ago when I was in elementary school, I still remember coming home and telling my mother about a little boy that sat next to me in class who regularly drew violent pictures of guns. Thanks to social media, I have seen this same kid grow up into a fully functional adult that has never used violence to harm anyone. So while I might have freaked my mom out telling her about this gun-loving kid that sat next to me in class, he turned out to not be so violent at all.

It’s not so abnormal for a child to draw something violent. Of course, if you do catch your child drawing violent images it is important to discuss their pictures with them. By talking to them openly about their artwork you can learn the real meaning behind their drawing, and where the inspiration for such a graphic picture came from. Violent drawings might relate to watching too much television or playing too many video games.

Do Drawings ALWAYS Mean Something?

Looking at your child’s drawings might grant you insight to their inner thoughts but it’s important to never over-analyze their work. Sometimes, a drawing might seem like a bad sign, when really it’s nothing to worry about at all.

Talking to your child about their drawings, and asking them about why they included certain details provides insight and can help bat off unnecessary worries. Just make sure to keep your dialogue open-ended so that your child has a chance to explain for themselves what they have drawn and why. Ask them questions such as; “Tell me about what you drew. Who are the people you drew and what are they doing?”

Drawings can be interpreted in many ways; this is where analysis can get thrown off on the wrong track. Some researchers actually aim to avoid this form of analysis. Kristen Cullen Sharma is a neuropsychologist at the New York University, she explains that many therapists are leery of using drawings to determine much at all about a child because of the ambiguous nature of art. Although, that doesn’t mean Sharma doesn’t agree that art can be rather telling. In fact she says, “My colleague might not interpret drawings the same way as me, so there’s a need to continue to develop evaluations so that we can rely on them.” ( NPR Interview )

Signs Your Child’s Artwork Might Be Of Concern

Even the oddest of drawings might mean nothing serious at all, but in some cases drawings are incredibly telling and a way for parents to act on something bothering their child psychologically.

Some signs that your child’s artwork might be indicative of a larger problem:

If your child’s overall artwork changes dramatically and suddenly. For instance, if your child has never drawn a violent image in his or her life and then suddenly they start to only draw violent things. It’s not one drawing that should cause concern, but instead patterns within their artwork you should look out for.
If your child tends to use mostly red and black ink this is also a sign that therapists have identified as important. Using the color black a lot is often linked with childhood depression, and using the color red in excess can be a sign of anger and aggression. Red and black markers are readily available, and so your child simply using these colors is no cause for concern. Yet, if you notice all of their drawings rely predominately on these colors that’s when you might want to think deeper about their color choices.
If your child draws strange versions of your family, such as leaving certain family members out of the picture all together, or continually sketching himself or herself far away from everyone else. Clinical psychologist and behavior consultant Dr. H’vovi Bhagwagar says that family portraits can be the most telling drawings of all, and that “…any upsetting event currently in a child’s life usually shows up in the family drawing.”

The Wondrous World Within Your Child’s Mind

If you are truly concerned about the content of your child’s drawings it’s important to skip jumping to any conclusions. Instead, you may want to seek professional help from a child therapist in order to determine if your child’s drawings require extra special attention.

Children are creative individuals that draw whatever comes to mind. Sometimes these drawings are laden with meaning, and other times they are just funky creations that interconnect with a child’s development, vast imagination, and overall curiosity about the world.

At ABC Learning we love nurturing little minds, contact us today to learn more about our educational preschool and daycare programs for children ages 12-months to 5-years.

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How to Teach Drawing

Last Updated: December 29, 2022 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Kelly Medford and by wikiHow staff writer, Kyle Hall . Kelly Medford is an American painter based in Rome, Italy. She studied classical painting, drawing and printmaking both in the U.S. and in Italy. She works primarily en plein air on the streets of Rome, and also travels for private international collectors on commission. She founded Sketching Rome Tours in 2012 where she teaches sketchbook journaling to visitors of Rome. Kelly is a graduate of the Florence Academy of Art. There are 9 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 73,739 times.

Teaching drawing can be fun and rewarding, but it’s also a challenge. To be a successful drawing teacher, you need to be patient and encouraging. Try not to point out students mistakes or be judgmental. Remember, everyone has to start somewhere! By starting with simple concepts like sketching, then working up to techniques like shading, you can help students become confident, talented drawers.

Introducing Sketching

Step 1 Start by having your students practice holding a pencil.

Let your students know that their sketch doesn’t have to look exactly like the object in front of them. It’s just a sketch!

Kelly Medford

Draw how it looks, not how you think it looks. Kelly Medford, a plein air painter, says: “With drawing, it’s a challenge to learn to see things as they are and not how you think they are. Children substitute symbols for objects , but instead of drawing symbols, have your students try observing objects as they really are. Learning to draw from observation is the foundation of drawing .”

Step 4 Ask your students to harden and define the lines of their sketch.

For example, if they were referencing a bottle that has a label on it, have them go in and add the label and any text on it.

Teaching Contouring

Step 1 Have your students place their sketchbook on their lap under a table or desk.

Teaching Shading

Step 1 Place an object under a light source and have your students sketch it.

For example, if the light source is a lamp shining directly down on the object, your students would draw a circle or arrow at the top of their paper to indicate that’s where the light source is.

Step 3 Demonstrate how to shade in a drawing based on the light source.

Being an Effective Teacher

Step 1 Focus on the things your students do right.

For example, you could say to a student “Nice job, I really like how you shaded this drawing. Is there anything you would change or do differently next time?”

Step 2 Avoid having students copy directly from your drawings.

Community Q&A

Things You’ll Need

Drawing paper
Graphite pencils
Light source
Inanimate objects

↑ https://www.nhsggc.org.uk/kids/resources/ot-activityinformation-sheets/holding-a-pencil/
↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewMksAbgdBI&feature=youtu.be&t=386
↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewMksAbgdBI&feature=youtu.be&t=515
↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewMksAbgdBI&feature=youtu.be&t=527
↑ https://theartofeducation.edu/2019/09/27/extra-teach-youngest-students-draw-life/
↑ https://theartofeducation.edu/2022/06/08/jun-how-many-ways-can-you-innovate-the-way-you-teach-drawing/
↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewMksAbgdBI&feature=youtu.be&t=581
↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewMksAbgdBI&feature=youtu.be&t=621
↑ https://www.goshen.edu/art/ed/draw.html

About This Article

To teach drawing, encourage your students by saying things like, "I really like the way you shaded this drawing." Additionally, get your students to draw from their own observation rather than copying your work, since this will help improve their creativity. As they draw, tell your students to look at the object rather than the page so they learn to draw from observation instead of memory. For tips on how to teach sketching and shading, keep reading! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Essay on Drawing

500 words essay on drawing.

Drawing is a simplistic art whose concern is with making marks. Furthermore, drawing is a way of communicating or expressing a particular feeling of an artist. Let us focus on this unique form of art with this essay on drawing.

Essay On Drawing

Significance of Drawing

Drawing by itself is an art that gives peace and pleasure. Furthermore, learning the art of drawing can lead to efficiency in other mediums. Also, having an accurate drawing is the basis of a realistic painting.

Drawing has the power to make people more expressive. It is well known that the expression of some people can’t always take place by the use of words and actions only. Therefore, drawing can serve as an important form of communication for people.

It is possible to gain insight into the thoughts and feelings of people through their drawings. Moreover, this can happen by examining the colour pattern, design, style, and theme of the drawing. One good advantage of being able to express through drawing is the boosting of one’s emotional intelligence .

Drawing enhances the motor skills of people. In fact, when children get used to drawing, their motor skills can improve from a young age. Moreover, drawing improves the hand and eye coordination of people along with fine-tuning of the finger muscles.

Drawing is a great way for people to let their imaginations run wild. This is because when people draw, they tend to access their imagination from the depths of their mind and put it on paper. With continuous drawing, people’s imagination would become more active as they create things on paper that they find in their surroundings.

How to Improve Drawing Skills

One of the best ways to improve drawing skills is to draw something every day. Furthermore, one must not feel pressure to make this drawing a masterpiece. The main idea here is to draw whatever comes to mind.

For drawing on a regular basis, one can make use of repetitive patterns, interlocking circles , doodles or anything that keeps the pencil moving. Therefore, it is important that one must avoid something complex or challenging to start.

Printing of a picture one desires to draw, along with its tracing numerous times, is another good way of improving drawing skills. Moreover, this helps in the building of muscle memory for curves and angles on the subject one would like to draw. In this way, one would be able to quickly improve drawing skills.

One must focus on drawing shapes, instead of outlines, at the beginning of a drawing. For example, in the case of drawing a dog, one must first focus on the head by creating an oval. Afterwards, one can go on adding details and connecting shapes.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Conclusion of the Essay on Drawing

Drawing is an art that has the power of bringing joy to the soul. Furthermore, drawing is a way of representing one’s imagination on a piece of paper. Also, it is a way of manipulating lines and colours to express one’s thoughts.

FAQs For Essay on Drawing

Question 1: Explain the importance of drawing?

Answer 1: Drawing plays a big role in our cognitive development. Furthermore, it facilitates people in improving hand-eye coordination, analytic skills, creative thinking, and conceptualising ideas. As such, drawing must be used as a tool for learning in schools.

Question 2: What are the attributes that drawing can develop in a person?

Answer 2: The attributes that drawing can develop in a person are collaboration, non-verbal communication, creativity, focus-orientation, perseverance, and confidence.

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Drawing cure: children's drawings as a psychoanalytic instrument

PMID: 22073442
DOI: 10.1353/con.2010.0016

This essay deals with the special case of drawings as psychoanalytical instruments. It aims at a theoretical understanding of the specific contribution made by children's drawings as a medium of the psychical. In the influential play technique developed by Melanie Klein, drawing continuously interacts with other symptomatic (play) actions. Nonetheless, specific functions of drawing within the play technique can be identified. The essay will discuss four crucial aspects in-depth: 1) the strengthening of the analysis's recursivity associated with the graphic artifact; 2) the opening of the analytic process facilitated by drawing; 3) the creation of a genuinely graphic mode of producing meaning that allows the child to develop a "theory" of the workings of his own psychic apparatus; and 4) the new possibilities of symbolization associated with the latter. In contrast to classical definitions of the psychological instrument, the child's drawing is a weakly structured tool that does not serve to reproduce psychic processes in an artificial, controlled setting. The introduction of drawing into the psychoanalytic cure is by no means interested in replaying past events, but in producing events suited to effecting a transformation of the synchronic structures of the unconscious.

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Chick-fil-A charges $35 for controversial kids summer camp: ‘Yay!! Child labor!!’

A Chick-fil-A in Louisiana is raising eyebrows for its popular new kids program.

On June 5, a franchisee in Hammond, Louisiana, announced a unique experience for kids: Chick-fil-A Summer Camp. Admission for the camp is $35 and consists of one, three-hour session with team leaders (Chick-fil-A-speak for managerial employees) and is suggested for kids ages five to 12.

The camp comes with a kids meal, T-shirt, name tag and snack and consists of various activities like spending “some time with the Chick-fil-A Cow and Chick-fil-A Team Leaders” as well as a behind-the-scenes look at the inner workings of a franchise location.

“We are excited to announce our very first Chick-fil-A Summer Camp,” the Facebook post reads. There were initially three sessions offered at the West Hammond location, each with a capacity of 30 children.

The concept proved so popular — all sessions sold out in an hour — that the restaurant added three more sessions on June 6.

Still, this deep-fried summer camp concept proved to be rather divisive. In the comments section of the posts, some overjoyed parents and mostly apprehensive readers took to their keyboards to let their thoughts be known.

“Yay!! Child labor!!” wrote one Facebook commenter, with another saying, “THIS IS CRAZYYYY LOL.”

“This is super weird are these people trained in child care?” asked someone else, with a commenter adding, “Teach em nice and early how to be corporate wage slaves."

There were supportive comments, too.

“I’ll go against the grain here. Kudos to you, Chick-Fil-A Hammond,” wrote one commenter in support. “It’s nice to see an offer to teach young children about work ethic and responsibility, while having a little fun at the same time. I’ll ask my daughter if she’s interested in attending.”

“Sent! Can’t wait!!” wrote one parent who signed their kid up — another replied that they had as well.

A few folks simply tagged the U.S. Department of Labor’s Facebook page in the comments section.

“I don’t like the stage of capitalism we are in right now for so many of yall to think this is a great idea,” wrote another commenter. “If this wasn’t a ‘Christian’ company and say, a local McDonald’s, would yall be over the moon for paying for the exploitation of your child ?”

“Every person who thinks this is a good idea should be in jail,” added another.

“Making kids learning fast food instead of reading, crafting, playing music, discovering nature, sports and so many wonderful things a kid can learn is disgusting 🤮,” wrote one Facebook commenter. “Corporations taking over the education of children is very, very dystopian. It reminds me the movie Idiocracy.”

“Very healthy and normal country,” said one more.

Chick-fil-A declined TODAY.com’s request for comment on the backlash and on specifics of whether campers will be taking and bagging orders as one commenter suggested.

Representatives for the brand did say, however, that campers are not doing the work of team members as part of this program, adding that Chick-fil-A employees serving as counselors will not engage in their usual tasks during camp and will instead do activities with campers.

This is not the first time the chain has hosted a summer camp. A Houston-area Chick-fil-A started its still-running experience six years ago with activities like bingo and trivia.

Although the Texas-area kids camp also sold out quickly this year, the chain’s national representative tells TODAY.com these camps do not turn a profit. Additionally, Chick-fil-A notes the camps are not part of a corporate program and that all of its restaurants are locally owned. Owners who live and work in the communities in which their restaurants operate create their own programs to engage with their neighbors.

Still, some commenters appear genuinely concerned about child labor law violations. Children being overworked in the food service industry has been a growing problem in the U.S. for years. In 2023, more than 300 children, including two 10-year-olds, were found to be working at McDonald’s restaurants across four states in violation of federal labor laws.

According to the Department of Labor, investigators found that three franchises in Kentucky, Indiana, Maryland and Ohio were found to have children working at the drive-through as well as preparing food orders and other tasks.

Washington, D.C. native Joseph Lamour is a lover of food: its past, its present and the science behind it. With food, you can bring opposites together to form a truly marvelous combination, and he strives to take that sentiment to heart in all that he does.

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Guest Essay

Surgeon General: Why I’m Calling for a Warning Label on Social Media Platforms

An illustration of a girl lying in bed in a darkened room. The glow from her phone illuminates her pillow with a warning sign, a triangle with an exclamation point inside it.

By Vivek H. Murthy

Dr. Murthy is the surgeon general.

One of the most important lessons I learned in medical school was that in an emergency, you don’t have the luxury to wait for perfect information. You assess the available facts, you use your best judgment, and you act quickly.

The mental health crisis among young people is an emergency — and social media has emerged as an important contributor. Adolescents who spend more than three hours a day on social media face double the risk of anxiety and depression symptoms, and the average daily use in this age group, as of the summer of 2023, was 4.8 hours . Additionally, nearly half of adolescents say social media makes them feel worse about their bodies.

It is time to require a surgeon general’s warning label on social media platforms, stating that social media is associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents. A surgeon general’s warning label, which requires congressional action, would regularly remind parents and adolescents that social media has not been proved safe. Evidence from tobacco studies show that warning labels can increase awareness and change behavior. When asked if a warning from the surgeon general would prompt them to limit or monitor their children’s social media use, 76 percent of people in one recent survey of Latino parents said yes.

To be clear, a warning label would not, on its own, make social media safe for young people. The advisory I issued a year ago about social media and young people’s mental health included specific recommendations for policymakers, platforms and the public to make social media safer for kids. Such measures, which already have strong bipartisan support, remain the priority.

Legislation from Congress should shield young people from online harassment, abuse and exploitation and from exposure to extreme violence and sexual content that too often appears in algorithm-driven feeds. The measures should prevent platforms from collecting sensitive data from children and should restrict the use of features like push notifications, autoplay and infinite scroll, which prey on developing brains and contribute to excessive use.

Additionally, companies must be required to share all of their data on health effects with independent scientists and the public — currently they do not — and allow independent safety audits. While the platforms claim they are making their products safer, Americans need more than words. We need proof.

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FACT SHEET: President Biden Announces New Actions to Keep Families Together

Since his first day in office, President Biden has called on Congress to secure our border and address our broken immigration system. As Congressional Republicans have continued to put partisan politics ahead of national security – twice voting against the toughest and fairest set of reforms in decades – the President and his Administration have taken actions to secure the border, including:

Implementing executive actions to bar migrants who cross our Southern border unlawfully from receiving asylum when encounters are high;
Deploying record numbers of law enforcement personnel, infrastructure, and technology to the Southern border;
Seizing record amounts of fentanyl at our ports of entry;
Revoking the visas of CEOs and government officials outside the U.S. who profit from migrants coming to the U.S. unlawfully; and
Expanding efforts to dismantle human smuggling networks and prosecuting individuals who violate immigration laws.

President Biden believes that securing the border is essential. He also believes in expanding lawful pathways and keeping families together, and that immigrants who have been in the United States for decades, paying taxes and contributing to their communities, are part of the social fabric of our country. The Day One immigration reform plan that the President sent to Congress reflects both the need for a secure border and protections for the long-term undocumented. While Congress has failed to act on these reforms, the Biden-Harris Administration has worked to strengthen our lawful immigration system. In addition to vigorously defending the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood arrivals) policy, the Administration has extended Affordable Care Act coverage to DACA recipients and streamlined, expanded, and instituted new reunification programs so that families can stay together while they complete the immigration process. Still, there is more that we can do to bring peace of mind and stability to Americans living in mixed-status families as well as young people educated in this country, including Dreamers. That is why today, President Biden announced new actions for people who have been here many years to keep American families together and allow more young people to contribute to our economy. Keeping American Families Together

Today, President Biden is announcing that the Department of Homeland Security will take action to ensure that U.S. citizens with noncitizen spouses and children can keep their families together.
This new process will help certain noncitizen spouses and children apply for lawful permanent residence – status that they are already eligible for – without leaving the country.
These actions will promote family unity and strengthen our economy, providing a significant benefit to the country and helping U.S. citizens and their noncitizen family members stay together.
In order to be eligible, noncitizens must – as of June 17, 2024 – have resided in the United States for 10 or more years and be legally married to a U.S. citizen, while satisfying all applicable legal requirements. On average, those who are eligible for this process have resided in the U.S. for 23 years.
Those who are approved after DHS’s case-by-case assessment of their application will be afforded a three-year period to apply for permanent residency. They will be allowed to remain with their families in the United States and be eligible for work authorization for up to three years. This will apply to all married couples who are eligible.
This action will protect approximately half a million spouses of U.S. citizens, and approximately 50,000 noncitizen children under the age of 21 whose parent is married to a U.S. citizen.

Easing the Visa Process for U.S. College Graduates, Including Dreamers

President Obama and then-Vice President Biden established the DACA policy to allow young people who were brought here as children to come out of the shadows and contribute to our country in significant ways. Twelve years later, DACA recipients who started as high school and college students are now building successful careers and establishing families of their own.
Today’s announcement will allow individuals, including DACA recipients and other Dreamers, who have earned a degree at an accredited U.S. institution of higher education in the United States, and who have received an offer of employment from a U.S. employer in a field related to their degree, to more quickly receive work visas.
Recognizing that it is in our national interest to ensure that individuals who are educated in the U.S. are able to use their skills and education to benefit our country, the Administration is taking action to facilitate the employment visa process for those who have graduated from college and have a high-skilled job offer, including DACA recipients and other Dreamers.

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