From Scribble to Drawing and Writing!

Some children struggle with drawing.  They may continue to scribble and have difficulty copying simple drawing patterns.  This becomes a concern when the child is 3 or 4 years of age and should be imitating and copying simple lines and shapes (such as a horizontal line, vertical line, circle, square). 

​There are usually some underlying reasons for a delay in pencil control and drawing skills.

1. Difficulty with visual spatial skills.  This may include poor body awareness, poor awareness of how they relate to objects and poor visual attention to 2D images/pictures.  A "red flag" may be a lack of interest in books and pointing to pictures within books or difficulty copying block simple block patterns.  ​

• Work on visual spatial skills --->  Craft Stick Pattern Copy  and Block Patterns. 
• Watch Visual Perceptual Skills with Craft Sticks Video --> You Tube
  
• Read books together and play "I spy" to find various pictures.  
• Encourage active participation in finger rhymes and action songs ---> Read more. 

​​​2. Difficulty with pencil grasp and pencil control.  This may be due to weak hand strength, poor fine motor skills or poor postural control. Your child may switch hands constantly, drop the pencil, break pencils or  press too lightly.  They might draw wiggles instead of straight lines.

• Incorporate daily hand strengthening activities ---> Developing hand strength.
• Incorporate fine motor skills in play ---> Toys for Fine Motor Skills
• Read more about pencil grasp HERE and HERE and HERE

​3. Difficulty with directional language - 3D and 2D.
​Some children with language delays will have difficulty with "directional language".  This means they have difficulty understanding concepts such as "on", "next to", "under", "between", "behind" etc.  

When it comes to drawing and writing, an understanding of position or direction on paper is really important for spatial relationships and how lines come together to form pictures and letters. 

Incorporate "directional language" in play of objects as well as when you look at books or puzzles.  
​
4. OTHER
There are many other reasons that can affect a child's ability to draw. If you are concerned about these aspects, seek medical advice for your child. Some of these might include:

• a cognitive delay
• a neurological delay
• low muscle tone
• a developmental delay
• speech and language delay
• poor attention 

From scribble to meaningful lines and shapes. 

Watch these ideas via the You-tube video below or via this link
​---> https://youtu.be/y1ffJYoHkic

1. Use objects!  (eg. playdough, fruit, toys)
​Place objects to mark out where lines starts and ends.  
Place objects to trace around.
Place objects to mark out what the lines look like and where they go on the page.

​​2.  Use multi-sensory experiences. 
​This not only motivating but can provide feedback to the muscles and joints as a child draws lines and shapes. 

• Draw in a sensory tray such as shaving foam, rice, sand, salt.
• Use non-pencil items for drawing such as a paint brush, feather, toothpick, q-tips or a toy.
• Use tactile surface to draw on such as glitter or sand paper.​
• Use stencils or rubbing plates to provide a tactile boundary whilst drawing. 
• Encourage partial drawing to complete a picture to promote success. 
• Magnatabs are a fun magnetic tool that can be used to draw lines and shapes. 

3. Use guided drawing. 
This may initially be imitating your drawing with each step needed to complete a larger picture.  I usually start with a face and simple pictures like a sun and a rainbow.  You can also use additional prompts like playdough or felt to provide extra help for your child to grasp visual spatial relationships with drawing. 

Once your child can imitate your drawing or draw from a physical prompt; you can move to drawing from a pictorial prompt.  Have a look at these directed drawing prompts from Margaret at Your Therapy Source .

4. Fluency patterns.
Copy lines to work on pencil control.  Once the basic patterns can be copied, work on even spacing and even heights.  

Read and purchase ---> Fluency Patterns 

5. Printable worksheets.
​Don't start here.  Always start with the options listed above!

When your child has developed some of the skills to draw; then printable worksheets become a great way to fine tune pencil control.  You can work on colouring between lines.  Encourage your child to notice the visual cues such as the edge of the picture so that they aim to stay within the lines. 

Your child could draw through mazes, join dot to dot pages or trace over lined pictures.  Encourage your child to add their own patterns to copy pictures that they see. This will help them to develop visual spatial awareness and pencil control. 

Read and purchase ---> Pre-writing Lines and Shapes Printable Sheets.

Drawing lines and shapes are vital to child development.  Don't jump straight into teaching children to write letters and numbers. Help them to build the foundational skills with lots of drawing in the preschool years.

Are you looking for more ideas to help your preschooler?  Have a look at the 10 week preschool program that I have created that provides a full range of activities to support child development for 3-5 year olds. Each week of the program includes activities for the whole body, hands/fingers and using tools such as scissors and pencils. The program is designed to engage children in their learning.  It is suitable for groups of children in a day care or preschool setting. It could be used by OTs or parents with individual children.

Find out more --> Animal Theme Preschool Program

Well I hope that you have found some ideas that you can use straight away with your children to help them move from scribble to drawing and writing. Let me know if you try them out!

Cindy is a registered occupational therapist practising in Sydney, Australia.  She has two growing children who are a constant source of inspiration and learning.  Cindy loves working creatively to help children to reach their potential, finding opportunities in everyday living and making learning fun. She is also addicted to making printables (even when they take a long time to complete).  Cindy is the author of the Occupational Therapy blog Your Kids OT.  Read more articles from Your Kids OT at https://www.yourkidsot.com/blog

Cindy is a member of the Functional Skills for Kids Therapy Team.  They have together published THE HANDWRITING BOOK, THE SCISSORS SKILLS BOOK and THE TOILETING BOOK.

​The information on this site is general in nature. The activities are safe for most children, however, you should consult an Occupational Therapist or health professional to address specific movement, sensory or other medical conditions. Affiliate links are used throughout this website to promote products I love and recommend. I receive a commission if any purchases are made through these links. Please see my disclosure policy for more details. ​​​

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