Research: The Importance of Children Learning Drawing Skills - How Does it Benefit Their Development?
As part of my research into arts education, it’s benefits, the issues surrounding it and the importance of creative learning, I have decided to specifically look at the use of drawing skills and how important they are in terms of a young person’s development. I have decided to research this because as my website, project and workshops are all about drawing skills, understanding the need for young people to know how to use a pencil or drawing medium effectively is important for my understanding. This will help me produce an informed project as a whole. It is important to note that this aspect of my research will consider developing skills from a very early age, rather than just focusing solely on secondary school education. I feel that it is important to look at early development of drawing skills because once a child gets to secondary school, they have already made some decisions on what they feel they are able to do, and not do. Also, those who are particularly interested in art often start from a younger age, or are encouraged to draw early on, which helps in developing such skills. Investigating the benefits of learning drawing skills at a young age will show how important the arts are within education, and even broadly within child development. This will in turn inform my workshops and online platform when trying to venture into new demographics of people, as well as making sure my secondary school resources are aimed appropriately at a range of abilities. I intend to look at the early years arts development suggestion and then make further note of potential ways to develop from this for a secondary school student.
I intend on doing this area of research in long note form, as I think it will be better for my understanding in this format.
Fine Motor Skills: “Fine Motor Skills: Fine motor skills enable a child do things like delicately turn the page of a book or fill in a sheet of paper with written words. Holding a paintbrush so that it will make the desired marks, snipping paper with scissors into definite shapes, drawing with a crayon, or squeezing glue from a bottle in a controlled manner all help develop a child’s fine motor skills and control of materials.” (Kohl, 2021) -
Fine motor skills is an interesting element of a child’s development that would need to be focused on. Being able to use the materials and mediums you have at your disposal is important in creative learning. At an early stage, as the quote suggests, a basic understanding of materials and how to use them would be required. I think such actions or tasks would also help with the development of the movement of the fingers and wrists to get the child used to movements like this. However, at secondary school level, one would assume the focus would be building technique, gross motor skills, developing an artistic style and understanding more complex mediums. But there needs to be the initial grounding of understanding how to identify, pick up, use and essentially play with materials and mediums at an early age to be able to build on them in later development.
Problem-Solving Skills: “Problem-Solving Skills: When children explore art ideas, they are testing possibilities and working through challenges, much like a scientist who experiments and finds solutions. … Art allows children to make their own assessments, while also teaching them that a problem may have more than one answer. Instead of following specific rules or directions, the child’s brain becomes engaged in the discovery of “how” and “why.” Even when experimenting or learning how to handle art materials effectively, children are solving challenges and coming up with new ways to handle unexpected outcomes.” (Kohl, 2021) -
Problem solving skills are something that are needed throughout many different subject, and finding ways to problem solve is a very useful life skill. At an early years age, it is clear that working through different challenges means to question how and why things work they way they do, as well as trying different materials and seeing what works and what doesn’t. This is a similar process at any age, but at an early years it is clear that it is a case of trying things that are unfamiliar and using different drawing materials without any direction or guidance. You are essentially learning through doing or through repetition, which is a useful method of building skills. Learning how to problem solve is also a good skill when drawing because you can come across mistakes or issues with a piece of work, and finding ways to work around them is good when progressing through a project. Mistakes can often result in interesting pieces of work. I think problem solving is something that you can build on throughout your creative work, and the student will find more confidence in working around issues the more they are confronted with them. Experimentation is great to help with promoting problem solving for this reason. I will continue to provide workshops the promote experimentation as a result of this.
Self-Expression and Creativity - This is an important topic, however it is difficult to quantify. I like how this article describes self-expression and creativity for a child as follows
“It is important, however, to separate the notion of “talent” from “creativity” — a child does not have to create a masterpiece to have a meaningful artistic experience. Art is a process, not a product. It’s tempting to want our children’s art to turn out “cookie-cutter perfect” to prove that they are successful and on track. It’s reassuring to know that we can relax! Where art is concerned, it is the process of creating — exploring, discovering, and experimenting — that has the greatest value. Through self-expression and creativity, children’s skills will develop naturally, and their ability to create will soar.” (Kohl, 2021)
This description is very interesting and is something I can agree with. There has to be a difference made between what is talent and what is creativity. It does not have to be right to be interesting or artistic. I like how the article suggests given children the opportunity to try things, reassure them that what they are doing is right and most importantly encouraging self expression over the final outcome. I think this sentiment should be translated into secondary school learning, and even beyond because many students have confidence issues because they do not feel they are gifted enough to be able to be involved in art. They forget that the most important part is the process you use, not the outcome. I think more students would remain engaged with the arts if the pressure of things being accurate or ‘just like the reference’ was not as strongly prominent in the education system. Allow students to try, experiment and immerse themselves in art and the outcomes will be far more positive.
After looking at this article about the importance of child development through the arts, I have found interesting parallels in what we should be learning as young children and what should be encouraged within schools. Some of the skills we develop as a child through plat and experimenting with different objects and materials is then built on throughout school and ultimately become very important life skills, such as problem solving. I think the description of self expression and creativity is a fantastic point because the focus within schools is completely off. The arts should be about the process, experimenting and building on skills, whereas within schools it is all about the outcome and the marks you generate form this. The discussion about talent and creativity is another very interesting point that would be fantastic to debate in an open forum because often these terms are unrealistically mixed together when they should be separate entities. Overall, I think looking at this article was really useful for my understanding and my ongoing body of research.
SOURCE: - Development, 1. and Kohl, M., 2021. The Importance of Art in a Child's Development. [online] Backlight Studios. Available at: <https://www.backlight.mu/the-importance-of-art-in-a-childs-development/> [Accessed 25 August 2021].
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