Analysing children's drawings in relation to current theories on cognitive development - Essay Example

Children move from uncontrolled to controlled scribbles. The second stage known as pre- schematic stage occurs from two to four years. Children tend to use their favorite colour to colour every imaginable thing. They are able to draw people with large heads and smaller stick bodies. The other stages include the schematic stage where children create stories for their drawings and the preteen stage which involves the “I can draw” syndrome. (Wallace 2002) Consistent with this five stage theory, Victor Lowenfeld 1947 also categorized children’s visual art development into five categories, namely, Scribbler, Preschematic, Schematic, Drawing Realism and Pseudo-Naturalism.

In light of the fact that only the drawings of a three year old child are analyzed, just the first two stages of Lowenfeld’s art development, specifically, Scribble and Pre-schematic, will be discussed. Lowenfeld posited four sub stages to the Scribble stage. These include disordered-uncontrolled markings, longitudinal-controlled repetitions of motions, circular motions and naming. Lowenfeld maintains that the appearance of circular images with lines mark the beginning of the Preschematic stage.

Throughout this stage the schema or visual idea is created. The drawings demonstrate what is “perceives as most important about the subject.” (Wallace 2002) Unlike Jean Piaget’s stages of development which has a chronological age guideline, Lowenfeld’s stages proceeds along the characteristics of the children’s art. In his description of the scribbler, Lowenfeld suggests that no discernible shape such as an identifiable object or animal is observable. He also proposes that the Scribbler does not represent any specific space in their drawings.

The lines drawn appear to be arbitrarily made. However, in his letter to his GP, child A demonstrates an understanding of space in that the scribbles vary in length representing