Running Head: DIFFERENT VIEWS
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Seeing the World Through Scribbling: Different Views
Barry Hren
Northern Illinois University
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Introduction/Rationale
Scribbling is universally recognized as the initial stage in a child’s artistic development. Craig
Roland (2006) noted that recent research has shown that perhaps “young children do
occasionally experiment with representation even though their scribbles may not contain any
recognizable forms”. This begs an age old question- at what point do scribbles transfer from
being nonsense into something with rational thought behind it, and at what age might that occur?
By examining some different views of the stage, some conclusions can be drawn.
Literature Review
Boughton and Freedman (in preparation) in Making Art Meaningful approach the subject of
scribbling by dividing it into three separate sub-stages; “uncontrolled scribbling”, “controlled
scribbling”, and “named scribbling”. It is during the controlled stage that I would suggest an
overlap occurs with Roland’s posed theory, as barring the extremely rare child prodigy, I doubt
most children are putting meaningful thought behind their first few attempts at scribbling, and
quite often such attempts are as likely to end up on a bedroom or kitchen wall as they are on a
specified piece of paper.
Theorists Day and Hurwitz (2007) referring to this stage by noting that “As time goes by,
seemingly random drawings are increasingly controlled, they become more purposeful and
rhythmic.” Their name for it is the “manipulative stage”. This stage, occurs in the two to five age
range, although it is impossible to point specifically at what point the breakthrough occurs age
wise, one can see the overlap with both Roland and Freedman and Boughton’s “controlled
scribbling”.
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Other theorists have attempted to overlap and intertwine many of their colleagues work, such
as Robert Schirrmacher. For his version of the early development/scribbling stages, he called
them “Manipulating the Media: Scribbling and Mark Making” for ages one to two and “Making
Shapes, Outlines, Designs and Symbols That Have Personal Meaning “ for ages two to four
(Fox and Schirrmacher, 2011). In this case, the theory has more of an age range that overlaps
with three of the years in the Day and Hurwitz (2007) theory, so it becomes easier to point to a
general spot that Roland (2006) may have been referring to.
Personal Thoughts/Discovery
In reading the views of several different theorists and seeing several themes occur over and
over again, I had faith that the track they were all taking was correct, though they had different
names for it. Though it is impossible to nail down the exact age at which rational thought behind
scribbling occurs, by starting with the two to four range, and perhaps taking different tasks to
measure the thought of the children scribbling (such as asking them to verbalize their thoughts
while drawing and then repeating the questions at monthly intervals), it may become possible to
narrow down the rational thought development point even further.
Summary
I have extrapolated the different versions of the scribbling stage from six noted writers on the
subject. Roland (2006), Day and Hurwitz (2007), Boughton and Freedman (in preparation)and
Schirrmacher (2011), all posted writings that similarly describe changes that occur generally
after ages one to two but generally before ages five and up, and although they refer to the stage
in different manners, the goal of pointing to an area when rational thought is behind the
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scribbling is the same. I believe further research combining both writings of educators and
psychologists along with verbal experiments with children in the scribbling stage, would further
pinpoint the age, and by studying the society and scholastic culture around it, we might also see
why some school systems tend to be more advanced than others.
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References
Boughton, D. & Freedman, K. (in preparation) Making art meaningful: a practical approach to
teaching visual culture. Mcgraw Hill, New York, NY.
Day, M. & Hurwitz, A. (2007). Children and their art. (8 ed.). Wadsworth Publishing, Boston,
MA.
Fox, J. & Schirrmacher, R. (2011). Art and creative development for young children. (4 ed.).
Centage Learning, Belmont, CA.
Roland, C. (2006). Young in Art. Retrieved from www.artjunction.org