AIBU to ask what your 3 year old can draw?

[DooDahhDing]

Posting on here for traffic

What can your 3 year old draw or write? My child turned 3 in November and can draw a circle and lines, that is it. If we are drawing together i can get them to draw a person if i ask them to draw the body parts one by one which they try but if left to their own devices they just scribble and draw dots.

They can hold a pen if shown but if they put the pen or pencil down and pick up another they go back to a fist grip on the pen. They cannot write their name and struggle to copy letters,

Speech is fine, no issues with running jumping etc, can hold a fork and spoon etc,

But is really struggling to draw and write. Is this normal for a 3 year old? Nursery are starting to make me worry as they have mentioned it twice now so its making me question if there is some sort of delayment issue or is this normal for their age?

Nursery mentioned it the week before half term and then mentioned it today when we went in so its making me worried

My 3 year old scribbles. My 5 year old has only just begun forming letters. I wouldn't be worrying

A closed circle is pretty respectable going for a child that's just had its 3rd birthday. Between the 3rd and 4th birthdays is when I'd expect to see this progress to [say] recognisable stick people, ideally with dots for eyes.

Letters/writing - forget it.

My dd is 4.5 now, she draws stick people with clothes on and is getting better at animals. Letter and numbers shes way ahead of the class. At 3, even 3.5 she just scribbled

Mine was also 3 in November. Shes about the same, nursery are concentrating on lines and circles which she is happy enough doing. Sometimes she goes a bit further, like she knows what she wants to draw but struggles to do what she wants so it's just a case of practise really x

Mine was also 3 in November. He can do a circle, lines, and a couple of letters from his name but has only just started copying/tracing. He will do squiggles across a page and say he's writing, and can do a stick figure and a smiley face.

But it depends on the day/time/mood/which way the wind is blowing etc.

I'm surprised at the nursery, the one mine goes too are just pleased if they can get him to sit down long enough for a focused activity

Lines, circles and scribbles...he'll be 4 in April. He has very little interest in art/drawing but has just started enjoying playdough.

Get a second-hand leap pad.
Buy a cartridge called Letter Factory and another one called Art Studio.
The stylus encourages them to draw and those games are so much fun, so educational, and perfect for nursery children. My two youngers ones learned so much from playing just those two games on the leap pad.

Letter factory is full of songs and games and also, tracing the letters with the stylus. So it gets your little one writing letters while making it 'fun'. Art studio is the same. It encourages drawing and teaches kids so much about colour, patterns, shape.
Melissa and Doug do a Pattern Block toy which is incredibly good for creating an image using shapes. This is great for development and encouraging fine motor skills creatively.
Try buying Stabilo kids easy grip pencils and Stabilo Woody crayon pencils for drawing and colouring.
Cutting play-doh with a real (toddler sized) fork and knife is how I used to teach kids to use a fork and knife at school... for kids who were struggling. Though yours is confident in this area, it may be a good exercise anyway. Get those fingers moving and all of that good stuff.
Klutz Fingerprint books for kids are fabulous!! Have a look on Amazon. They really got my non-drawer drawing (he was 4 at the time and I bought a few of them... basically, you stamp your fingerprint and copy the examples in the book, like making it into a guy with legs arms and a face, or a flower, or snail etc. These are GREAT! And cheap!

I am sure, so, so sure that your child is absolutely fine. But hey, maybe drawing's just kind of boring! There are so many other things to be doing! But there are ways of encouraging this and the tips above will help encourage those fine motor skills (it's very normal for kids to be 'behind' in this area until they start primary school).

My youngest was the same. He IS on the spectrum but showed all sorts of other signs. His disinterest in art and weak pencil grip (he could only draw a line at age 3) would not have been enough of a flag. Your child clearly draws, but just isn't that into it... for now! Kids have a way of changing and surprising us. You may have a future Van Gogh on your hands.

tinyurl.com/sr2zkuh block pattern toy by Melissa and Doug

tinyurl.com/v73y25t easy grip pencils (they do L and R) look at Stabilo and also Lyra Furby pencils for kids. Plus Stabilo Woody.

tinyurl.com/vfwbuh6 Klutz fingerprint book

tinyurl.com/sjdxq5j Letter Factory by Leap Frog (see video)

A circle and straight lines. Developmentally this is entirely appropriate. There is not a single child in his preschool class of 14 that can ‘draw’ anything.

In DSs class they range from 'never sits down to do art' to writing their name nicely.

My daughter was 3 in December and brought this pic of her family home from nursery last week.

Sorry, meant to say that I really wouldn't worry. Even within my own friendship group there is such a massive range and what one child is good with another child will struggle with and vice versa

I had a child who could draw beautiful pictures of castles and beach scenes at 2. In though he was going to make me a fortune. The other three kids could do lines, circles and maybe a basic ‘person’ at three.

Now they have all averaged out and my Picasso, at seven, is a distinctly average drawer and his handwriting is very mess.

Not being able to draw at just turned three is indicative of precisely nothing. I would not give this a second’s more thought and in certainly wou don’t be going out to buy expensive electronic toys to help. Just give them a crayon and some paper and don’t worry about what comes out the other end.

I don’t think my 3 year old can draw anything, I’m sure he still just scribbles

*i thought

My now 5 year old could draw like Picasso when he was three.

Bollocks. He scribbled and coloured everything black.

Dd was 3 in January and has just started to draw people. They look like happy little potatoes, it’s very cute!

My DD is a few months shy of 4 and doesn't really like drawing/mark making - mainly a scribbler. Will drawn recognizable shapes if really directed - square, triangle, circle, and does a general approximation of a face - eyes, nose, mouth and hair etc. She likes to draw lines/or dots and then count them and loves dot to dots. Will only actually write the letter 'E' (as it's the start of her name) But I'm not particularly worried as she is good at other things. Her spoken language is very good - she is bilingual and uses complex sentences in both. Her memory is excellent and her understanding of math is quite impressive - she is able to do simple addition and subtraction up to 20 (in both languages) and able to conserve numbers over long period time eg. when we walk home from nursery might decided to count all the red cars that sees on the way and keep a running total in her head.

Some of her peers are definitely more advanced/artistic writing their names and drawing real pictures but less so in other areas that she is good at IYSWIM - so it all sort of balances out. Unless there are other issues I really wouldn't worry.

I'd say it just depends on the child - stating the obvious I know....

DD has always loved drawing, at 3 to 3.5 she could have a decent go at stick people, animals and objects. Also she was early with writing her letters and numbers. She is 5 now and I swear she's better at drawing than me (which is not very difficult).

DS is 3.5. He wrote his (very simple, 3 letter) name for the first time this week. And he drew a sort of recognisable face. I doubt he could draw a square or a triangle if asked, or be very good at copying other letters. He doesn't seem at all interested though. He is much better at using cutlery than DD was at his age, but he can't hold a pen very well - although this may be because he's not sure if he is left or right handed. He swaps back and too all the time.

I really wouldn't worry, kids develop in their own time and also, with something like drawing, there is an element of skill involved. My DH is an excellent artist and it seems DD is following him, whereas DS may (sadly) be taking after me!

My three year old can draw childlike but realistic looking people, cars, animals and write her name, Mummy, Daddy etc. But she is autistic, so she's quite advanced in some areas such as this and very behind in more social aspects of her development. The paed told us her drawing was more at a level of a 5 year old (she was drawing during her appointment while we talked) so I wouldn't expect that of a NT 3 year old. Lines and circles etc sounds about right to me at this age!

But I wouldn’t worry, kids develop at totally different times. Dd didn’t walk until she was almost 2, and that was a stressful time! They do like to keep us on our toes.

Daughter 3.5, can draw circles and add dots for eyes, lines for arms and legs then lines off the head for hair.
She can also draw an M, 7, 3, A.

Does he get to see you draw? It's a bit like reading, children are much more likely to take an interest and develop skills if they see their parents doing it.

3 is very young to be writing. Does he/she read/understand the letters correctly, or are they just shapes to him?

The only thing I would say is, is he/she having lots of time at home just to play with the pens/pencils and scribble away, or on screens a lot? (It doesn't sound as if this is the case, but just thought I would mention it.) I would just let him/her enjoy scribbling and the skill should come with time.

My DD could draw just about discernible pictures at around 3. (By which I mean you could vaguely see it was meant to be a human) and would hold the pen correctly by herself (I think nursery taught her). DS did scribbles and still had to be reminded how to hold a pen in reception.
DD (6) has very good handwriting now probably one of the best in her class. DS (8) is other end of the scale DD who is 6 has better handwriting than him. In general though DS is the most academic and he can write passably well so I just encourage him to try but don't worry. What you're describing sounds well within normal to me.