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 3.5 year old now can draw people (sticks / circle heads etc) it comes all
Of A sudden so don't worry. She scribbled and then suddenly did people and rainbows. Don't worry it will come.

Thank you for the replies. I was vague about my child being a boy or a girl as my 3 year old is a boy and I have a 5 year old girl, she was advanced in all her milestones so i try not to compare them as they are completely different children & wanted to see if it was down to DS being a boy or not

A closed circle is pretty respectable going for a child that's just had its 3rd birthday I thought so too but nursery have made me feel like its somthing he should of done ages ago

I will look into a leap pad. We have an chadvalley interactive easel and my child just isnt interested in it for long

But hey, maybe drawing's just kind of boring! There are so many other things to be doing! I suspect this is the case, he doesnt like to sit still and would rathar be running around

he had a speech delay when he was younger, he was reffered by nursery to speech and language but by the time the appointment came around nursery said he had caught up. But as he did have a delay at one point it does make me worried now

Im aware this could be my own perception but he has recently had a new teacher who i think doesnt like him and has labelled him as a delayed naughty boy and now with this drawing thing i am wondering it even more so as when i googled it also said hes doing what most 3 year olds do. He is in a class of mostly girls and is boisterous compared to them but its just small things like when ive asked how he is she has pulled a face and said been a bit silly, ive asked how and she said he wouldnt listen at sit down time

He is 3 years old, silly might aswell be his name

I havnt said anything because im aware this could just be my own perception

But by the sounds of it hes doing alright with his drawing isnt he? Ill keep practising with his regardless but i just wanted to compare with others and see where he was on the scale, by the sounds of it i think hes where he needs to be,

3 is very young to be writing. Does he/she read/understand the letters correctly, or are they just shapes to him? i thought so too but didnt know if i was being precious about 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?

We have pens and paper/colouring books on hand in the front room. My 5 year old loves it but my 3 year old just isnt interested, he will scribble for a short time but thats it then.

Every other day we come home from nursery and i try to lure him into drawing but he gets frustrated me even asking, he doesnt like it much. The first time they mentioned it the other week i took him to the shop and let him pick colours & paper etc to try and get him more excited

Hes completely different to my DD they are complete opposites, i go with the flow as such with my DS as i know not to compare them but as its been 2 recently it did make me wonder

My DD is 4.5 and in reception. At 3 she basically scribbled and drew the odd line/rainbow. At 4 and start of autumn term she drew rainbows and vaguely copied her name. Now she copies lots of letters and writes her name independently as well as drawing cars, people, trucks, planes and aliens/monsters. She took off after half term after being totally uninterested!

Sounds like a very typical boy. DS never wanted to draw, colour or do anything with a pencil. Both DD's would draw for hours. AT 3 it's more important to encourage fine motor control generally than worry about penmanship! If you google there are lots of activities online (playdoh etc). Another one that worked for DS was printing out dot to dots and mazes. He absolutely loved doing these and it was one of the rare times he'd actually pick up a pencil voluntarily.

Sounds normal op. Dd also turned 3 in November. She can draw a circle with rudimentary eyes, nose and mouth with sticks coming straight out of the circle to represent arms and legs. She sometimes gets carried away and gives her stick person 16 arms and legs

She's loads more bookish than DS was at the same age and takes much more interest in painting than he did. Her fine motor skills are much more developed than his were. Verbal skills comparable - both can talk for England, very communicative. Ds was just never much of a drawer/ painter/ reader. Interestingly though, at 9yo he's become much more creative.

They're all different. I don't get too hung up on milestones.

My DC went from the odd circle or messy line to shapes and people within a couple of weeks of starting pre school so 3 1/2 and letter came on very quickly afterwards

I think where you child is at is pretty normal

You don’t want him to draw, that’s the wrong focus. You want him to ‘make marks.’ It could be with a stick in the sand, in some shaving foam, with a paintbrush. All of this is mark making and is setting up the right skills, the right pathways and the right muscles for writing later.

This is from an occupational therapist.

My 3 year old prefers to colour, and colour she does SO CAREFULLY. She can draw freakish looking bunnies although if I'm honest it's mostly a couple of circles that may or not be touching and then some lines which may or may not touch the circles for ears. She can make her letter (J) but only if I make dots first.

I think your kid is doing just great! Don't worry about it, they even out in the end.

If it help's OP our nursery have said the boys there are much less into drawing than the girls, maybe he's just not interested in it yet

@timeforawine do you know if that’s backed by educational studies or just reenforcing gender stereotypes?

Same as my three year old. They all develop differently. Eg early walker be a late talker..it all evens out and being an early drawer doesnt mean they will have artistic talent or not..just encourage mark making x

Its neither it's just what the pre school staff have observed with the children they have in the room at the moment