While many conflicting philosophies and techniques exist for helping children draw, there are several general suggestions any parent can follow in providing a nurturing environment for the budding artist.
• First, show an interest in your child’s work. Get involved by creating pictures together, or you might draw something on a piece of paper, have your child expand on it or add his own feature, and so forth, until you’ve created a complete work.
• Second, provide your child with rich perceptual experiences that he can draw upon when sketching. The outdoors are particularly well-suited for getting in touch with smells, sights, sounds, and textures that can eventually find their way into pictures your child might draw.
• Finally, supply your child with adequate art materials and frequent opportunities to draw around the house. Materials can include colored felt tipped pens, pencils, crayons, colored chalk, sketch pads, and large sheets of butcher paper for murals.
• Set aside a time during the week when the whole family can draw together, and make sure your child has a space where he can work when he wishes to draw in private.
Thomas Armstrong, Ph.D. is an award-winning author and speaker with twenty-eight years of teaching experience from the primary through the doctoral level, and over one million copies of his books in print on issues related to learning and human development. He is the author of nine books including Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom, In Their Own Way, Awakening Your Childâs Natural Genius, 7 Kinds of Smart, The Myth of the A.D.D. Child, ADD/ADHD Alternatives in the Classroom, and Awakening Genius in the Classroom. His books have been translated into sixteen languages, including Spanish, Chinese, Hebrew, Danish, and Russian.