Celebrate the Scribble

If you spend time with young children, you are likely familiar with the "scribble stage" of drawing development.  Children love to get their hands on crayons, markers, paints and pencils; they enthusiastically scribble marks on paper, sidewalks, walls, boxes, anything in their path.  

Slowly as children gain more control over their movements and begin to notice the record of their action on the page, these scribbles become shapes and designs and eventually pictures of things.  It is fascinating to watch this development and much has been written about the steps along the way.  It all starts with the scribble.

Art educators notice scribbles in other media as well - there is a scribble stage to painting, sculpture, collage, clay work, even writing.  I have known many young artists in the scribble stage who have different marks for writing than they do for drawing - drawing marks are big and loopy and use the whole arm while scribble marks are small and tight and use the wrist - imitating adult movements when writing.  

It seems that any creative activity begins with a scribble.  The scribble can be blobs of paint, globs of glue or mashed clay; whatever the media the beginning is all about learning how materials behave and seeing what can be done to alter them, to make a mark.

Awareness of this scribble stage can be valuable to parents in beginning art with young children.  Often we are tempted to begin with a craft or plan for a specific project when what children really need is time to explore the materials. Open-ended time to scribble, paint, spread glue and tear or cut paper will allow children to build the specific skills necessary to make meaning with these materials as they grow.

Think of it as similar to learning to walk, to talk or other developmental milestones.  Initially babies just delight in babbling, playing with sounds and with the movements of their mouths.  Repeated sounds lead to first words and then to understanding and communicating with these words.  The new walker at first just delights in being upright, transitioning from crawling to walking comes when the baby develops mastery to the point where he can get somewhere as fast on two feet as he could on all fours.  

Art development is much the same way; we begin with playing with materials and seeing how they interact with our hands.  There is great joy in just this sensory experience and the tactile discoveries along the way.  These explorations build toward skills necessary to make meaning whether through a picture that tells a story, an object for decoration, or an abstract painting that sets a mood.

There is great opportunity to play and discover together if you embrace the scribble stage. Young children can be introduced to craft by helping set-up and clean up routines and learning proper care of materials.  At the same time, craft plans with too rigid an expected outcome rob children of the chance to invent, play and think for themselves.  

Enjoy just playing with lines, shapes and colors alongside your child.  Many adults find this sort of nonrepresentational creation soothing and relaxing.  Whatever your artistic background, this is a chance to embrace not knowing.  Free yourself to scribble, explore and embrace the unexpected - if you see art making as a playful exercise, you may be surprised what you can discover together.