Toddlers' Drawing Skills

Most toddlers at that age are still using the shoulder joint to move their arms and hands. They may have well developed fine motor skills in their hands but the arm muscles are still growing and developing. For example, you may notice while they are coloring they aren't using their wrist and elbow joint but the movement is originating from higher up, the whole arm is moving instead of just the hand. Drawing things like faces is just a circle, ovals, and putting them together to look similar to a face. They may not expect him to actually draw a face but to assess his ability to follow instructions, to put shapes together, all kinds of things can. Here are a couple of links I found.

http://www.babycentre.co.uk/toddler/development/physical/...
http://www.childdevelopmentinfo.com/development/devsequen...

I agree with you that he is too young to draw a face or do anything academic on demand. My three-year old is getting services for OT, PT, Speech Therapy and education. She is considered slightly behind by every "professional entity" including the Board of Ed and the medical profession. Yes, her muscles are a bit weak and she cannot conjugate a verb. However, by the time she was 30 months, she knew every single letter of the alphabet (including small letters,) could count to 15, know all her shapes and colors, puts together puzzles in record time, and could write simple letters like X, A, S and W. None of these skills were taken into consideration in any of her evaluations because these are 4 & 5 year old skills she has. Keep these things in mind and do not let anyone make you feel your kid is under par and please don't over stress the child.

My son will be 3 in July and he just recently drew a face and I was amazed. We were drawing circles, so the circle was very big, then I asked him to draw two eyes, which was two more circles, he never did put a nose (some scribble in that area), and he made a line for a mouth. He also scribbled a ton of hair on the top. I was truly amazed and I can't say for sure if he would be able to do it so well again today if I asked. I think it is a lot of pressure for a child that young to perform this, especially since he is fluent in other things. Best of luck and keep us posted how it goes.

Well, my question is...when you ask him to draw a face several times, does he draw the same thing every time?

My 4 year old is just now starting to grasp the idea of 2 eyes and a mouth. She never gives her people a nose. The body consists of 2 legs which come directly out of the head and two arms from the same place, with circle/scribble hands and feet.

I think at that age the only thing you can judge on is the fact that when you ask him to draw something that he is able to put pen to paper and not roll his race car on the wall.

They are probably just trying to determine what learning level your son is at right now. My son could draw a face that young and it was recognizable, but I had to show him how and while learning first I would do it then he would do it. My daughter could do it but I would have to walk her through it...draw a circle, where do the eyes go, where does the mouth go...and it would still look very odd. I think your child's ability to draw has more to do with the way they learn and their interests. My son is advanced in some areas (reading at 3 yrs old) but my daughter is advanced in others (motor skills). Figure out what your son is good at and highlight that! Although, don't forget to teach the other things too.

Counting is good. If he can count he may be able to learn quantity too. He should be able to figure it out really quick with some M&Ms. Ask him if he wants 2 or 3...show him the M&Ms the first couple of times & let him decide. Both my kids figured that out pretty fast!

If your son's language skills are what he is good at and he shows interest, then you could work on reading skills...recognize the alphabet...then the alphabet sounds (phonic CD helps), then he'll be ready to sound out words!

Good luck!

Hi L.
It is so much fun to have a highly intelligent child who will grow up to be all they want to be with so many choices. But when I had to go to the neurologist with one for head injury she said it is so much more difficult to raise a bright child because you have to give them so much more meaningful time and activities. You are doing great in that department.
As for drawing faces, when I worked with 2-3 yo in day care they could always draw faces after being there for about a month. Why? because I used smile faces as a reward. I was always drawing them, and they saw it as a positive thing so they started trying. My question is does she write; O's X's T's? Do you have drawing time?
Once they get to drawing O's then you can put a smile in it, then add eyes, continue to add features. It won't take her long. The kids would ask me at about 3 where the ears were etc? Drawing people (stick people often) however is a 4 yo skill. So are they using it as a marker to guage classroom, or a skill to accept or reject?
Just a thought to think about
God bless you and give you wisdom

Wow, is that school looking for child prodigies or something? My daughter just VERY recently started to be able to draw faces and people, at almost four. All kids are different but I think that school is just a tad demanding. Not all kids have those skills down by that age. For some it takes a little longer.

my son turned 3 this past september and only recently started drawing a face, i think it was after his birthday actually. like your son he is bright, knows all his letters, numbers, colors, shapes, very articulate vocally - but not really interested in drawing. also my friends all have girls about the same age, and they've been singing/dancing to music for at least a year, or more, and my son has only JUST started singing to us. i didn't even realize he knew his entire alphabet, in order i mean, until a few weeks ago, when he surprised us by singing the entire ABC song all by himself, with a totally sheepish grin on his face. i think he was just shy. anyway, yes i do think the school is too demanding, but that's what happens with a selective school. be prepared for your child to be judged. i think he's just fine developmentally, probably ahead in most areas.

Children's drawings can be directly correlated with cognitive and motor abilities. The more details they are able to include the more processing skills they are said to have. It also shows control of their motor skills. I have seen children in that age group with the capabilities to draw faces with eyes, eyelashes, pupils, noses, smiles with teeth, and so forth. Although they are disproportionate, they were recognizable. It's a skill that gets worked on and even with my own daughter, it was about modeling how to draw the face. I saw what she was capable of producing and then would ask about certain things like where are the eyebrows and I would draw them onto my own drawing and she would mimic that onto her own drawing. Your son will be able to with a little bit of coaching, too!

I don't think they really have to be able to draw a perfect face. I think they are just using the drawing to get an idea of where your child stands with fine motor control. It is very rare for a boy or girl to be able to draw a perfect face at that age. The face drawing or stick figure drawing is usually used as a kindergarten test rather than a preschool test. You do have extreme cases occationally like my son. He could print his name perfectly, but had to be told to "turn it around," because he did "mirror writing" at that age. I was so concerned that he might be dislexic, that I asked him if that is how he saw the letters and he told me he was just bored and wanted to do something different. He was a "drawing nut" and just couldn't stop drawing. At that age he was drawing just about anything and everything, so by the time he got to kindergarten he ask the couselor if she wanted a portait or a full body drawing of a person. He was drawing like a teenager by the time he reached 1st grade, so it really depends on how well the child's fine motor control and attention span is.

I think it depends on the child as well. My son is almost 4 and rarely draws on his own. He brought home a nice self portrait from school that has a face but has never drawn one for me. When he draws it looks mostly like a scribble but he tells me all kinds of stories about what it is (robot, rocket, rabbit, characters from a book, etc.). Recently I found little blue scribbles on my walls and he explained they are the surveyors marks the construction workers make on the roads (which we have seen in our neighborhood). It was almost funny enough to be worth the clean up. Anyway, I figure he is just more interested in construction machines and cars than in drawing people. It also seems like girls are often more interested in drawing than boys--but this is just a casual observation from playgroup.

Children develop in different ways; it's amazing to see their uniqueness. I try to simply introduce the next step in an area so that when they are ready for it, they can take that step. If this school has a lot of different things they are looking at, just let him do his thing. He will pick up on your stress level. So the most important thing for his interview is that you be at peace. Yes, you think this is the best place for him. But try to simply be upbeat and at peace yourself, trusting that the right thing will happen. You don't want him somewhere that is too hard/stressful/not a good fit. Let the interview be a mutual interview/selection process.