🎨Can you please post pictures of your 3 year drawings ✍️

[PurplePanda1]

My 3.5 year old DD loves colouring but she still has a whole hand grasp of pens/crayons and her colouring is still like scribble. Would you mind posting pictures of your 3 year olds art work so I’ve got an idea on what other children this age can do. Can you please say exactly how old your DC’s are as well.

TIA

Title should read 3 year ‘olds’.

This is quite a good one - I think he's also written his name on it!

They all seem to develop drawing skills at different rates - the other day all the children aged 3-5 were drawing on a massive sheet of paper when I picked up DS from nursery, and some of them (not the majority) could actually draw, but there was no correlation with whether they were recently 3 or nearly 5. My child is 3 years 5 months.

Thank you for posting. Can I ask how your DS holds a pen?

Not sure I've watched him do it recently - I think maybe it's slightly more sophisticated than just grabbing it with his fist, ie the fingers are pointing downwards, but he holds it a bit too high up to have much control.

DS2 did this the month he turned 3. He has always been very into drawing and writing (started writing his name the same month) but used a fist grip for a very long time - he turned six this year and we have spent a lot of time working on his fine motor skills to help with his tripod grip. He still needs reminding now (6.4).

Conversely, DS1 was still scribbling at 3 but adopted a tripod grip when he started to write at 4ish.

My DS is 3.3. He only did squiggles until starting school recently (not UK) when they started to take a tiny bit more form.

I'm aware this is bragging but this is from my DD at 3y7m! She's a talented artist though (autistic). This was a birthday card for her uncle.

DS (6) was still scribbling at 3, and while his drawings are now much more detailed, he still often holds his pen in a fist.

DD (3.5) has a tripod grip and draws people, writes a few words legibly etc. She's enjoying having a go at following drawing instructions too (this is from an adventure mice book - I've erased her name)

Thanks so much for your replies and lovely pictures.

These are examples of my DD who is actually 3 years 7 months old. Should I be worried?

@PurplePanda1 I'm not worried! Looking at the other nursery kids, mine seems very much within the range of normal, and looking at PPs' comments it seems like they're pretty much 50:50 on 'child prodigy' and 'scribbles'. Mine can sing in tune, which some of his friends who can draw can't do yet.

I work with this age group and it varies wildly. Usually (not surprisingly) the children who spend time doing art for fun are much more advanced than those who only do it when asked in a school setting. It seems to follow that the kids who are very busy with physical play tend to be less advanced here and vice versa.

We look at grip and pencil control obviously but also the ability to find meaning. A child who draws two scribbles and says that's Mum and Dad going for a walk is on track developmentally even if the scribble is awful. Focus is another thing, how long can the child spend on the task and does he or she watch their hand as they draw, for example. The behaviour while drawing can be as important as the drawing itself. We had one child who had excellent grip and applied pressure well but his pictures would go off the page. The art looked fine but the issue was he was looking around the room or staring straight ahead, his eyes didn't follow his hand. That was much more cause for concern than the picture itself.

Your DDs pictures are fine OP, I love her 'rainbow' on the right. Keep encouraging her and make it fun, I don't think you have anything to worry about.

Op I've just looked through my pics for drawings by DS1 and there is nothing before he is four and a half, and everything is perfectly fine with him.
He is 9 now and draws a fair bit; he's no artistic prodigy but he gets a lot of joy from it

They call it 'mark making' at this age and the one on the right is a well controlled crayon imo.

I'm not a teacher but I have hung around with a lot of 3 year olds and the variety in skill level at this age is massive. More than any other practice I think.

Messed up the image attachment, have redone below.

My DNephew draws and colours very well (he’s now 6) and has done onwards from age 3 but his DF does a lot of art and he’s taken to the Tate and other galleries and museums a lot. He does have a lot of natural talent. Lockdown helped as both parents spent a lot of time with him as he was as a toddler.

I wouldn’t worry if I were you OP but you can do art with them more and it should improve.

My daughters artwork she handed me coming out of nursery today. Apparently it's me (I think those are eyes!). She is three and a half (April baby).

These are examples of my DD who is actually 3 years 7 months old. Should I be worried?

No.

I have a variety of pictures from when my DD was preschool age. Some of them look like people and items while others don't.

Make sure you kid spends plenty of time playing outside with things e.g. climbing in the playground, riding a bike to improve gross motor skills, as well doing indoor things that need finer motor skills.

Also if you or her dad wears glasses get her eyes tested if you haven't done so already.

Edited to add: It is really important for their eye sight that children spend time playing outside in daylight. Otherwise we will end up following Singapore where nearly every child wears glasses and is short sighted.

This was done by my DD at 3 years 7 months. Up until then she was only doing scribbles, but she’s had a tripod grip for a long time.

Thank you all so much for your replies and pictures. I feel more assured that DD is doing okay.

@PurplePanda1
Having worked in an educational setting with this age group I'd say that there is a vast range of abilities in drawing at this stage and that your DD's pictures are well within it.

Even the mono- coloured scribble wouldn't be cause for concern in my opinion, but your daughter has obviously decided to purposefully use colour and pattern in her pictures.

As a pp mentioned above, we are a ND family and I won't post on here my children's drawings, but let's just say that they stood out, not just because they would be more inline with that of 11 year olds but also because of the obsessive nature in which they were mass produced.

3 years 3 months. She has gone from drawing triangles/circles to this fairly quickly. My son's drawings weren't much better at 4 and a half!