What do little children like to draw?

Drawings reflect the state of the child's soul, thoughts, fears, and desires of the child. The picture can show the momentary mood or long-standing serious experiences of the baby. Attentive and empathetic parents will be interested to know what little children like to draw and what such pictures mean.

What children draw

Children's drawings at the same time are similar and different from each other. There are many factors that determine what the next picture of the baby will be.

Age

Each age has its own favorite themes, colors, skill levels. Drawings “grow” with their authors, from primitive sticks and squiggles to full-fledged paintings, from random, unconscious works to thoughtful works.

Children begin to be interested in drawing at the age of 1 to 1.5 years. During this period, each kid makes his own little discovery: if you move a pencil on paper, then traces will remain on the sheet. For the next six months, the child checks his theory, chaotically runs his pen on paper, table, walls, floor and leaves dots, dashes, squiggles. There is no sense in such pictures, the color does not matter. The child likes the very process of moving the hand.

By the age of 2, there is an interest in his own drawings. The child pays attention to the connection between hand movements and the emerging dots, sticks and circles. Outwardly, the pictures do not change, but inside the baby a lot of work is going on to form visual-motor coordination. It takes a child about a year to establish a semblance of control over his own fingers, to learn not to step beyond the boundaries of the sheet. Gradually, chaotic lines will form funny faces, animals and birds, flowers and trees.

By the age of 2.5–3, the baby begins to give meaning to the pictures, to show where and what is drawn. With the help of an adult, a child can depict the sun, kolobok, path, sea. It is important not to criticize children's scribbles, not to impose strict drawing rules, not to help the child without his request, so that the child can build his own idea of ​​the world around him, gain confidence in his abilities.

From the age of 3, the child begins to draw primitive people, animals, birds. As a rule, the drawing is built on the principle of "point, point, comma" and "stick, stick, cucumber". People and animals look alike and resemble octopuses. There is no plot, the characters are scattered on a sheet of paper mixed with abstract lines and dots.

If at 3–3.5 years old a child still depicts only strokes and commas or refuses to draw at all, then parents should consult with experts.

By the age of 4, the drawings acquire the outlines familiar to adults. The child begins to divide the picture, depicting the horizon line, heaven and earth appear. The kid draws grass, trees, people and animals below, standing in the same row, and the sun, clouds - above. At this age, a child tries to capture movement and time: there was sun - it rained, there was day - night came. In this case, the sunny picture is sketched with clouds and raindrops, a bright day turns into a dark night. The kid depicts important objects much larger than the rest of the details of the picture. For example, a butterfly is larger than a flower, a dog is more at home.

For the next year or two, the child practices drawing skills, chooses favorite themes, characters, colors. The task of parents is to help, but not to impose, not to set rigid frameworks and requirements. After the baby reaches 5 years of age, on the basis of children's pictures, conclusions can be drawn about the psychological state of the child.

At the age of 6-7, a young artist begins to paint "according to adult" rules, taking into account the details, features of objects. He can easily depict a simple picture at the request of an adult.

Mood

Fears, problems, desires, dreams, sympathy, dislike leave their mark on a child's drawing, but the momentary mood of the little painter has the greatest influence on the picture. You cannot judge the character and state of mind of a child by one drawing. Sometimes parents, seeing a piece of paper with a monster and a pool of blood, start to panic. It seems to them that the picture speaks of the increased aggressiveness of the baby and they urgently need to consult a psychologist or psychiatrist. In fact, the drawing could appear under the influence of many factors, for example:

  • the child did not sleep well;
  • he has a terrible mood;
  • something hurts;
  • he did not want to paint, but the adults insisted;
  • saw a scary cartoon or film with scenes of violence and cruelty.

You should not forbid splashing out negative emotions through pictures. A new day will bring different experiences, and perhaps parents will never see heartbreaking pictures again.

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Sometimes it is better to ask the child what his drawing means. Maybe the monster is the "failed" boy, the pool of blood is the spilled jam. And there are so many dark colors because the light ones are over.

If a child draws gloomy pictures all the time and uses only dark colors, then adults really need to think about the reasons for this creativity.

Environment

Children's creativity is seriously influenced by everything that surrounds the baby. Loud sounds, fuss, obsessive help from adults will interfere with the child and distract him from work. An overly strict environment, critical remarks can scare off a crumb or force him to abandon creativity.

Children love to paint together. They, like monkeys, imitate each other and gladly join collective activities. However, they try to copy someone else's work. Drawings are similar and less convey the emotional state of each individual child. However, parents should pay attention if there are always no characters and themes in the drawings that correspond to the gender of the baby. The child may not understand or accept sexual patterns. Also, a signal can be drawings in which one of the sexes is infringed. For example, a boy constantly offends a girl; the king is always terrible and evil, and the queen is beautiful and kind.

Some children, more often girls, prefer to portray animals rather than people. Love for nature speaks of the baby's sensitivity, vulnerability. If a child chooses a favorite animal and draws it more often than others, most likely, the child identifies with this creature. The hero can be both real and fabulous, invented.

The image of terrible and angry animals, the presence of large teeth and sharp claws should alert parents. Such pictures can indicate rejection of the outside world, hostility towards it, a sense of insecurity and the need for protection.

Children, especially boys, love to depict monsters, monsters, but such drawings do not always indicate aggressiveness and imbalance. The picture can appear after watching a cruel, scary cartoon, film, program. Drawing is a way to overcome childhood fears, since a drawn monster can be defeated, painted over, torn apart, thrown out.

Adults should pay attention if the kid constantly depicts disasters, accidents, monsters, killing and maiming someone, or, on the contrary, categorically refuses to draw frightening characters.

Technology and fashion

Popular topics among boys aged 5–7 are technology, cars, ships, airplanes, weapons. Girls have clothes and accessories, fashion shows, dresses, jewelry, shoes.

For boys, technical drawings are considered the norm and reflect strength, masculinity, power. The child sees these qualities in the father, grandfather, elder brother. Do not worry if the picture shows a fight, a fight. Serious symptoms of increased aggressiveness are repetitive drawings with scenes of violence and murder.

Girls love pictures on women's themes, reflecting the behavior and interests of their mother, grandmother, sister. In his work, the child reinforces femininity, grace, accuracy, caring, trains the sense of taste and style.

Color

A child's first drawings are usually monochrome, since all colors take time to learn. Having mastered the strokes and dots, the baby chooses one color and begins to experiment with it. The shade does not matter, even black is allowed. For several weeks, the child draws pictures only in this color, and then moves on to the next shade, until he becomes familiar with the entire palette. After that, the drawings will become colored, and it will be possible to judge by them the character and mood of the crumb.

Young children love bright colors, but often some shade predominates in the pictures. Warm, sunny tones are preferred by persistent and active babies. Cold, pastels attract calm and dreamy children. The lack of multicolor, the contrast of black and white speaks of the child's psychological problems.

  • Red is pleasant to energetic, emotional babies, but it can indicate aggressiveness and psychological instability.
  • Yellow speaks of the optimism and high creativity of the artist.
  • Green - about poise, perseverance, love of the baby.
  • Blue - about dreaminess, self-confidence.
  • Blue is about calmness, but sometimes it symbolizes sadness, feelings of separation from loved ones.
  • Purple is the color of anxiety, fatigue and fantasy, foreboding at the same time.
  • Black attracts problem children and speaks of depression, aggressiveness.

When looking at pictures, keep in mind that the choice of colors often depends on the context. Black earth, a red flower look harmonious, but black houses and people, a red pool of blood are not suitable for a child's picture.

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