When did you child begin drawing faces?

Post Reply New Topic

My 3 yo began drawing faces yesterday and he is sooo proud of himself (I am proud of him too!). He draws a happy, sad and angry face. They all have eyes, nose and a mouth (up, down or zig zag). I asked him where were their ears so now he has add those on, He also wants me to hold his hand to help him write his name.

I was searching on line and was surprised that I couldn't find much information on this. I wanted to check and see what were other people's experience with this. He also loves to color, but this love is all new.

My son drew his first face when he was 4. It looked like a potato. Then I realized that it was supposed to be Pooh Bear (his favorite at the time). I was so THRILLED! I was told that he may never really be able to write well and need to use a keyboard in school. Well, once he started drawing he never stopped. In elementary school his artwork was always chosen for the district wide art show. And even now at 16 he still likes to draw even though it's not his main area of interest.

It's interesting because it's like once something clicks with them, they just start doing it naturally. The fact that your child is drawing facial expressions is great. I would use that and ask "is this person happy? is this person sad??" etc to reinforce understanding of facial expressions and social cues.

It's really a great step. Not just in motor skills but in understanding. Encourage it and watch what other great strides he makes. It's amazing to watch them develop all these amazing skills.

Thanks for responding.

He has a delay in his fine motor skills and was challenged to draw a circle 2 months ago during his assessment. He holds the marker/crayon with 3 fingers, but his control with wrting letters is still poor.

He drew the pictures on his own and then told me how the person in the picture felt. I thought the zig zag line picture was mean but he corrected me and told me it was angry. How can I use this to teach him social cues? His language is still limited so I am very interested in teaching him in creative ways.

I am so excited to hear about your story, hopefully my son will also develop his writing skills. He does ask for his crayons and paper when he is ready to color, so Ithink he enjoys art. We will move to painting when it gets a little warmer so we can do it outside without worrying about the mess.

My son (age 4) has only done it a couple of times. It's not a motor skill thing, he just prefers to write numbers.

I know you were really asking for what parents think, but I know that when I was young I had really good fine motor skills although I was always falling over and bumping into things. My general motor skills are still a bit dodgy, and I hold a pen with all my fingers tight together.

Thinking about faces in particular, I know I liked to draw things from a young age (about three-ish) and until I was about five, none of my people had mouths, hence no expressions. I just didn't look at people's mouths, so I didn't really notice they were there, I think, to be honest! Anyway, when I started school my teacher asked where people's faces were, and all my drawings of people had huge smiles. It was ridiculous, because I was only doing it because she told me too.

My son is almost five and has just now begun to draw people and faces. And he is super high-functioning. No one usually guesses he has delays . . . except he is just a little quirky. Everyone (teachers) assumed he scribbled because he was just being silly, not because he actually has difficulty with writing/drawing! He drew a picture last week of himself in school with his teacher and friend. The people were 'boxes' with smiles and eyes and hair . . . in the middle is a stack of blocks. Above them are the lights on the ceiling. I wonder if he drew so many lights because of sensory overload or just for fun! It was his first 'real' picture of a real life scene, no scribbles. I was elated.

(Anyone know how to attach a photo or is that possible? Thought that would be fun.)

my so was 3-4, but they looked more like a 2yo drawing. But at least he tried...lol

Not sure exactly, somewhere between 5.5 and 6.5.

DS didn't do any representational drawing whatsoever (only scribbles) until age 5.5. He started speech and OT after getting dx with AS, and one day the SLP was asking him to draw pictures of the words they were working on (for pronunciation), and she brought it to my attention. I asked the OT to work on it, and after one session he suddenly started drawing animals and people when asked. It was like it had never occurred to him to try, but once it was pointed out to him, he could do it.

I am not exactly sure what it means when they draw a face, I just know that at some point as kids, they should. My almost 6 yo did it about the same age (or a tad earlier) so I am just really excited that my 3 yo decided to do it.

I can't think that my son, now 10 years old, has ever voluntarily drawn a face. He is not good at drawing at all - currently his drawings skills are on a par with a toddler's. He drew a lot when he was younger, but it was always houses that he liked to draw.

He has also made up cards to play with, but the drawings that they feature are of monsters or pokemon, and are all very poorly drawn with nothing even approaching realistic features.

You know, I vaguely remember now that when DS was in preschool, or maybe before preschool, I was a little concerned that all his drawings were scribbles and dots. I think he didn't start making representational drawings at all until he was at the end of his preschool career (around 4) when the preschool director asked him especially to draw a specific picture for display. (I don't remember what, but something of himself and his friends doing something.)

From then on, he's been an active cartoonist. Again, it was one of those things where there was delay and delay and delay and I'd be watching other kids and get worried - and then just before the milestone, he'd make the leap.

Human faces? Never.