How old is the child who drew this?

[374jtwqj]

DS just gave me this picture. I know there is quite a lot of variation but how old do you think is the child who drew this?

I would say around 5 but my DS's drawings looked like that at age 7/8 because he wasn't into drawing much. He's nearly 10 now and is much better. But it doesn't matter anyway! Drawing is for fun and enjoyment, if your child is enjoying it then the output is immaterial.

wrong thread

i only commented because my son drew a picture at 4 with detailed face, eye brows and his nursery teacher was so impressed.

I was doing drawings like that at around five on, and have managed perfectly fine in life. I've actually done quite a bit of amateur design and craft and have a few qualifications in different design areas.
My son newly 8, is gifted at drawing, but hates dressing himself and struggles to put socks on! He was ten minutes late coming out of school the other day for that reason!
Just keep encouraging 😀 Also kids, often have dramatic leaps where something just clicks and the skill noticeably gets stronger.

How thoughtful of your son to put lots of effort into a drawing for his Dad. I expect all the things he's drawn he can tell you about.
I was always terrible at drawing (and rubbish handwriting...) and so I started to hate art generally. My (very artistic) mum showed me all sorts of art so I knew that it can be more about expression than accuracy and just because I wasn't naturally talented at drawing, it doesn't mean I'm not good at anything.
Perhaps he could build a lego thing for his Dad?
Though, if he's worried about his Dad being ill, and he's got the impression that a nice drawing from him will make his Dad feel better, it may be that he won't think anything is good enough. Perhaps some deflection of feelings?

3-5ish

The thing is @374jtwqj some people are good at drawing and some aren't but it's not a deficiency that will hold him back in life 🤷🏻‍♀️ just explain to him that everyone has different talents and encourage his.

5

Try Art for Kids. It's on You Tube. It's fun, engaging, my children loved it and and it really improved their skills.

8 ?
some of the year 3s in the class I work in are about this level.

4-5

His picture bears a very strong resemblance to the sort of drawings I was doing aged about 6 to 8, maybe even older. I was never good at drawing, but I can't remember feeling sad about it. Has someone been saying something mean to make your son feel this way?

Primary school teacher here; and lots of experience with the 4-7 age group, and assessing their work too. I would have guessed 6. Some of the lines are crude, and it makes sense that you say he also struggles with handwriting, but the level of detail and variety in the trees and flowers, and the level of realism (no floating objects, all the body parts of the cat are there, and relatively proportionate too) are definitely indicative of an older kid. I'd consider a 4 year old who could draw this definitely advanced. For a six year old who is not particularly neat or artsy, this is about right.

Have a look at this website:

https://www.littlebigartists.com/articles/drawing-development-in-children-the-stages-from-0-to-17-years/

This is the schematic phase, which as you see is roughly from 5-9 years old.

Lots to like about this picture! He should be proud.

6 is fine and it’s a very cute picture.

Don't tell us it was your newborn that drew this while you were preparing a bottle?

Based on my experience working with children all my life, I would say 4. Definitely not more than 5.

It is often a good idea to click on 'see all OP's posts' before commenting on 10 page thread.

Our child had zero interest in art at all at that age I would have been super happy if he hard drawn that. Never wanted to colour etc just wasn’t his thing. It all happened all of a sudden at about 10 ish and his skill just exploded and would spend quite a bit of time on it. Now in first form of secondary school and predicted a top grade at GCSE already.

Looks very, very similar to my 4 year old's drawings, so I'd guess 4 at the oldest?

My Y1 can draw a bit better than that but he draws nearly every day, he loves it.
it's absolutely in the range of normal.

I have deliberately not read the OP's posts so as to not bias my thoughts. But my experience of primary teaching would suggest any age from 4 (maybe a talented 3) to 7, possibly higher if had specific additional needs.

It varies massively.

MN will not generally give you a typical view on such matters ime. They will minimise the age as much as possible.

My DD could actually draw like this at 2.5 (yes, some kids can draw that early!) My DS on the other hand could probably only just manage something similar and he is 9! Some kids are good at drawing, some aren’t.

@374jtwqj My DS is 16, he's on course to do very well in his GCSEs. For him, I'd have said 8 or 9 for that drawing. His handwriting is also not very good. All it means is that his handwriting and his drawing are not very good - it doesn't say anything else about your or my DS. Yours has other lovely talents, judging by your posts, and I know mine does too. Make sure he knows that - being too self-judgmental can be very damaging.

One of my sons would have drawn that sort of thing aged 3, but he is 12 now and still fairly decent at drawing. The other one, could possibly have drawn something similar aged 6 or 7. He has no interest in drawing at all and never has - he barely even did any mark making until he was 4 and that was straight away to writing words at preschool. He is very bright and loves doing mental arithmetic (10 now) but loathes writing his workings down even now. I’ve always just assumed that it doesn’t really matter if they were ahead or behind peers in art - it just goes with interests I suppose, one child enjoys drawing (although still prefers sports or reading), the other one is only interested in playing sport or being outside so never draws for fun. Some of his (year 5) friends are very good at drawing, some are probably as bad as him. I always say to him that it’s one of the things that practise makes a lot better, but if he doesn’t enjoy it then there’s no need to draw (apart from when required at school) if he doesn’t want to!

I'd say 5-6, though that's about my level too and I'm considerably older 🤣🤣

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