When did your toddler start mark making?

[JumpingIn]

Just curious really. Zach is 17 months and will pick up crayons and 'dab' them on the page. Same with chalk on his easel, he kind of stabs at it! I'm excited to see him beginning to understand the whole mark making thing

 

[SarahBear]

I don't remember exactly... They were both early toddlers, I think, but Violet didn't really care that much about it initially and Leo doesn't currently care about it. I know that Violet enjoyed exploring art materials around age 2, but then became destructive with them and also stopped caring about them. Around July of this past year, Violet started creating representational drawings at about 3 years 8 months. She still doesn't draw much though but I know she practices writing her name at preschool.

 

[CaptainMummy]

All of my girls loved to scribble before they turned a year. My youngest has had proper pencil grip since 12 months and my other two also had it mastered early, but not quite as quick as that. My youngest turned two on Monday and can draw a simple 'person' with a head, eyes, nose, mouth and legs. My eldest two are amazing at drawing (and my eldest has neater handwriting than alot of adults) so I'm pretty sure what they do is an exception (both school and nursery continue to comment on both of their talents)

Its lovely to see them enjoying art. I love watching my girls concentrate and they always look so proud of their 'masterpieces'

 

[broodymrs]

Really young. He started doing it regularly when he started nursery at 11 months but we'd done it a couple of times at home before that. He's just started doing recognisable shapes now including people and he's just 3

 

[minties]

I don't really remember to be honest. Thomas was drawing people by 24 months though.

Never heard of mark making before! I had to click the thread to see what that was.

 

[Rainbow82]

He started scribbling with pens, bath crayons etc about 11-12 months I think as it made us buy him crayons paper and chalkboard and chalk for his birthday. sometime around 13 months he started to be a bit more creative? Wanting to use lots of different colours on the same page etc. He doesn't have a good pen grip yet and mainly holds it in his fist. If you draw a circle on the paper he will try to copy it but isn't particularly successful yet. It can keep him occupied for a good 20 minutes or so though which is a godsend when waiting for food in a restaurant or something. At the moment he seems to be making the connection between how much pressure he uses and the amount of colours if that makes sense and we have lots of drawing with faint colours then bits next to it where he's presses harder.

 

[KylasBaby]

I'm not exactly sure what mark making is? But dd has been scribbling for months now. I'd say from before she was a year. She still dabs and makes little dots all over the paper, but she scribbles more. I noticed at 13ish months (don't remember exactly) she had figured out how to correctly hold a pencil to draw/scribble.

 

[Bevziibubble]

At around 18 months but she only made lines. It was long time after that before she actually purposely drew anything meaningful.