To ask how much writing and drawing your 4 year-old does/did?

[MrsSpoonInBlanketSky]

DS just turned 4 last month. He has never shown any interest in drawing, let alone writing. I’ve always made a good selection of materials for these activities available to him but he has rarely chosen to use them independently. I’ve just been trying to encourage him this afternoon to scribble something for Father’s Day tomorrow, yet he was done after two minutes. It’s always been like this.

His nursery are very chilled and have always just said not to worry and that it will come when he is ready. They don’t have any concerns about him. Yet I see others his age sit and colour in pictures neatly for quite long periods and, with school looming in September, I’m now wondering if I ought to be doing more to address this.

What was your child(ren) like at this age and was there a point where it ‘just came’? Or did they need some encouragement/pressure and it would have been better to start this sooner rather than later?

DS1 never volunteered to pick up a pencil (crayon/paintbrush etc etc).
His writing was generally atrocious throughout primary.
He was diagnosed with dysgraphia (and dyslexia - which corresponded with his dodgy spelling) at the end of primary.
He is currently predicted 5s in English and French. 8s in maths, physics, chemistry & computer science. Various grades between for the rest.

So, he's bright, but struggles with spelling and writing. It's one end of the spectrum of mark making

Dc1 had to be directed and encouraged at that age. Dc2 asked for an "art station" like the one they had at preschool for her 4th birthday.

Now at 9 and 6, dc2 still spends ages in her room drawing pictures and dc1 will only do it if I suggest a specific craft project, pull out the materials and supervise.

At home very little interest at that age though they met the milestones for mark making and one of them loved writing his very short name. Now very artistic and keen on it - eldest spends ages drawing and writing now and youngest apparently spends lots of time in the art area at school

Definitely don't put pressure on him about it. If you do that he will associate writing and drawing with pressure which will be counter productive.

There are plenty of other things that he could do that use the same fine motor skills as drawing and colouring. Like threading beads, threading pasta, lego, stickle bricks. Peeling off stickers and sticking them down. Using stamps, painting, finger painting, play dough, digging for dinosaur fossil sets that have the little brush and little hammer to bash it with. Playing operation with the tweezers is excellent for using his finger and thumb which is needed for drawing.

It's so important to engage his interest rather than forcing something that he's not interested in.