3-year-old drawing - what's normal?

[UnbridledPositivity]

My DD really loves drawing and crafty stuff. However, every time she does some drawing, it's just mad scribbles and nothing else, no discernible shapes of any kind, no purposeful directing of the crayon iyswim. I noticed today that younger children at nursery already draw those stick people with their arms and legs coming out of their heads. Is there something wrong because DD doesn't draw anything like that yet?

How can I encourage her to develop her drawing? I usually just let her get in with it and talk to her about what she thinks she's drawing, the colours etc. Lots of interest and generally positive comments as I want her to feel free and confident - I don't want to tell her how to draw. But how do I encourage her to move on? When I put a picture in front of her, she still just 'copies' it by making scribbles.

My DD is nearly 3 and can draw a circle with two dots for eyes, a dot for the nose and a line for the mouth...that's about as far as it goes though! They have no body and limbs yet!
I think they all develop at such different rates TBH, I wouldn't be concerned if I were you! I'm an artist myself so trying extra hard not to be pushy though I find it tough pulling back when we are crafting and not making everything "just so", lol!!!!
Is you DD just 3 or closer to 4 IYKWIM?

BTW, My DD usually saves her master pieces for her Tomy Colour Doodle, very easy to draw on...

She'll be 4 in a few months... No faces with dots for eyes here.

DD 3.1 - just scribbles, can't do a circle.... and no interest in colouring either.

I think it's more about motivation... It will come

DS 3.6 no interest in drawing.
He's keen to choose something to colour in, but that then involves him choosing the colour, and me doing the colouring.

Seeing some of the other drawings at nursery, some are amazing, and the rest are all like his. Not worried yet, 'cause he's better at the physical stuff, and its the girls who generally can draw (and write!), but its disconcerting when you see other kids stuff which looks like something!

DD1 will be 4 in feb and shes only just started doing stick people. Shes come on all of a sudden iyswim. She now makes other shapes and if shes trying to draw something specific I can usually see what shes trying to do even if its a scribble.

Her paintings are still the whole page painted one colour though.

My DD has no interest in colouring in either!

DD3 is 3.7 and drew This last week. But I think that's fairly advanced..more 5 year old level, apparently. DD2 is 5.3 and doesn't draw that well. DD1 has SN, is almost 7 and still just draws lines and paints soup!

DD1 is 4.3 and has only in the last week started drawing people at all. I was really worried because she didn't draw or colour at all, just random squiggles. She started school in Sept and things have really progressed. I nearly cried when she drew our family for this weekend.

Hmm, I'm reassured a tiny bit I think. It just feels weird, so far I've always thought of her as 'just right', but this has worried me. I suppose she does other things really well. I'm not creative or arty at all, so it might be that DD is similarly impaired.

dd2 is 3 and beginning to be more figurative. dd1, though, was at 4 just scribbling on paper, like a toddler. She's now 7 and I don't know when it happened but her teacher says she is very good at art.

My DS1 only started drawing properly when he started school, aged 4.4. It just wasn't something he was interested in. He does some cracking pictures now, and really enjoys it, which is lovely to watch.

Ds1 didn't really draw anything until he started school (4.5) and just wasn't really interested in anything art or craft related.

Ds2 is 3.10, has been obsessively drawing for last three months or so a d can do people, animals, cars, helicopters etc.

I think it's just down to practise?

My DD was late to draw objects - after all her peers had started doing it. She has suddenly started drawing actual things this week.

I think that giving lots of access to pens etc is all the encouragement your need to give.

dd1 was just doing scribbles until she started school at 4.6
she's now in year one, and no Degas, but not noticeably behind the curve either

do you draw with her? if you don't then why should she draw? kids learn by watching what we do.

please don't worry about it. Maybe she just doesn't want to draw people/things. maybe she just likes using the colours etc. My DS is almost 4 too and has only just started drawing things that actually resemble what he wants them to. I think he used to get frustrated when stuff didn't look like he wanted it to so he just didn't try. Once he 'got it' he suddenly had a creative explosion where all he wanted to do was draw (monsters mainly). Its so hard not to compare your child to others, we all probably do it, but she's just got a different artistic style I bet! Just enjoying creating art is much more important than ability whatever age you are. i'm shit at drawing

Her crayons are always within her reach. She likes to pretend she's writing. at painting a sheet of paper all in one colour, this is also what DD does.

Interesting that some children seem to wait until they're at school before they get going on the drawing front.

Have you tired using magnetic or self adhesive shapes and sticky shapes etc rather than free-form crayoning? LO (2.2 yo) can make a 'teddy' with sticky or magnetic circle shapes now and it is a definite attempt - has body, head and ears...cant do more than lines, ovals and not quite joined up triangles with crayons though.

No, I don't usually do drawing with her because my skills are about the level of a 6-year-old, seriously. But point taken, I'll see if I can come up with a way of doing it together.

DD loves sticking all sorts of things on paper, so perhaps that's her thing. She really likes pretending things, so what looks like scribbles to me obviously really means something to her. She does like just using the colours. Missing the link between what something looks like in reality and on paper - that's it exactly I think.

My DS has just started drawing after 8 weeks in reception he has come on leaps and bounds. Before he started school he scribbled in large circles.

Ooh, good idea about playing with shapes in a different way, thanks!

Thanks everyone for all these ideas and experiences by the way - it's really interesting to hear how different all children are.

My dd (3 on Saturday!) Just scribbles, no shapes or any real purpose.

My niece ( 3 last week) can draw recognisable people and animals -cats, dogs, fish, even a blue whale with water spurting out!! She is amazing.

So I wouldn't worry, they are all different. DDs nursery asked me what I want to focus on and I mentioned her drawing and was told it was perfectly normal.

DD is 3.6.

Until the last 8 weeks she did mainly spirals and scribbles - some of which she said represented things. Her colouring-in was all over the place.

I then noticed about the beginning of October that she was taking more care in colouring in. Within a few weeks it was all done very precisely and within the lines.

She started to draw circles with eyes about a week after that. A couple of weeks ago she drew a card for DH with a picture of all of us - looked almost identical to the one that Lougle posted. A week earlier she wouldn't have been able to do that I don't think. She's also asking to draw all the time now.

I will admit to having been a bit 'hmm' as to why she wasn't doing more - I was an obsessive colourer-inner from a very young age plus I spent 4 years at Art College so she is surrounded by paper and pens.

I have found that kids often seem to plateau for a bit and then something clicks and they make massive progress over a very short amount of time.

So I wouldn't worry. You'll probably find that she starts doing it in a couple of weeks or months.