Why is Drawing Important for Your Child’s Literacy Development?
It is very important for young children after listening to a story read aloud and/or having read independently to become empowered to draw a picture(s) associating the overall theme/main idea; sequence; summary of the story.
Engaging children creatively makes children more expressive. Particularly for young children who cannot always express themselves using words and actions; drawing is a wonderfully important form of communication. Parents, teachers, librarians can gain an insight into a child/children’s thoughts and feelings through their drawings. Being able to express what they feel also boosts children’s emotional intelligence.
Drawing develops your child’s problem-solving skills. When drawing, a child is faced with multiple decisions- whether it’s “What color should I use here?’ How do I draw an animal and connect one part of its body to another? Which picture (s) should I draw that goes best with the story/text of story I heard or read?”
Drawing lets children’s imagination run wild! Drawing enables a children’s imagination to become more active. Each time they draw they access their imagination and make physical representations of what’s in their mind. Moreover, drawing is so very critical because it enhances a child’s motor skills. From a little child’s beginning small scribbles and drawings enhances your child’s motor skills from a very young age.
Starting children as early as possible will help them improve their hand and eye coordination while simultaneously fine-tuning their finger muscles in readiness for writing. The pencil ️ as well as crayons are basic inexpensive tools easily found at home and at school. Model to show your child/children how to draw easy drawings using scribbles, straight lines, curved lines, slanted lines; half circles; whole circles; and other shapes. One of the first things a child can do is pick up a pencil or crayon and begin to express himself/herself by drawing.
Drawing is where writing begins.
Drawing is not solely for the ’talented’. Certainly, there are children who have a natural talent for drawing, but they shouldn’t be the only ones who enjoy drawing, any more than we think only the naturally talented writers should write.
When children learn to connect story texts to associative pictures drawn. They come to understand stories heard and read with deeper meaning from multiple perspectives.
Drawing what you have understood from a reading passage, drawing the science experiment you have just done, or drawing the detail of an autumn leaf; drawing graphic representation in mathematics; or drawing a timeline in social studies/history are all examples of engaging with the same learning from a different aspect; a different angle; a different subject area.
For most children, this enhances the learning; but, for some other children it just may be the light bulb moment they have been waiting for to turn on in their minds opening the door leading to learning. The confidence and belief in self gives them a matured evolution to change their attitude and engagement with other aspects of curriculum learning, to thereby, internalize learning, intrinsically. A definite win-win for every child.