Anyone have any insight/info on how drawing develops in toddlers?

[christic]

We had playgroup at our house today and 3 of the kids were sitting at our kitchen table drawing for a while, all of them born within a month or so of each other--they'll be 3 in the spring. I've found it very funny in the past that Alice has a distinctive style of drawing--it's the same circles with smaller circles in the middle. Over and over again, I've got notebooks full of them! Well after the kids left today I got to see their drawings and each of them had their own style as well. Very consistent but different than Alice's. One draws these very exuberant zig zags across the page, another did smaller spots like Alice does but more like little squares colored in. I'm just so curious about what they're minds are up to! Alice doesn't really identify her drawings yet so that doesn't help.

Curious if anyone out there knows anything about how drawing develops, or is it writing they're practicing?

Thanks!

Chris

[redhookmom]

I just borrowed this book from the library- Drawing with children by Mona Brookes. It is a book that teaches you how to teach your children to draw, it is really neat. According to the authour a 3 year old will most likely scribble with some symbolic drawing unless taught to do otherwise. There are before and after drawings in the book that are fun to look at.

[redgus]

for the past few weeks my oldest dd developed a passion for drawing. somehow she learned to draw faces with arms and legs coming off of them. she also like to draw christmas trees and decorate them. she has a shoe box full of markers and crayons and plenty of coloring books and plain paper.
diana-mom to abby(apr 2001) and emma (jan 2004)