In this picture there are 3 people in this photo... K (20 months), N (4) and their nanny G. K is the smallest figure (on the left), then N, then G. (At the right you can kind of make out a tree and grass at the bottom.)
The text in italics is directly from http://www.talkingpage.org/artic012.html
The study of children's art provides some insight into the integration of their growing perceptual, cognitive and motor abilities. The 2.5 year old grasps a crayon in his hand and scribbles while the 4 year old can draw a recognizable human form know as the "tadpole person." The tadpole person is characterized by a big head, sticks for legs, and no body. The transition from drawing scribbles to the tadpole person usually occurs sometime between the 3rd and 4th year. Increased motor control and eye-hand coordination is one of the factors involved in this achievement. Drawing skills undergo a second transition sometime between the 4th and 5th year and the tadpole person is transformed into a complete person with a body as well as a head. Like the preschool child themselves, their art is delightfully full of life, energy, and creativity. According to one psychologist's review.
This picture shows the typical tadpole person I believe. It is "one of her teachers" at school (according to her).
Here's another one that shows she's making the transition to a more complete person with head, body and etc. (It's kind of funny to me that so many of the people she draws have red hair... We don't actually know any one with "red" hair.)
More quoting from http://www.talkingpage.org/artic012.html
A summit of artistry is achieved at the end of the preschool period... Drawings by youngsters of this age are characteristically colorful, balanced, rhythmic, and expressive, conveying something of the range and the vitality associated with artistic mastery... And the often striking products reinforce a general notion of the child as a young artist--an individual participating in a meaningful way in processes of creation, elaboration, and self-expression. (Gardner, 1980, pg. 11)
Exactly what I think!
1 comment:
Love that scrawly person, the last one. She's fab!
I have abook on kid's art that is so, so idealistic, so impossible to live up to--no coloring books, never draw them a picture, give them one color at a time, clay not play dough, no tools for the play dough--extruders, etc...it's a good book, but discouraging in its own way.
I hope my reading book doesn't feel like that.
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