Random Scribbling
Scribbling: It’s Important for a Child, Part 1
By Lois E. Wilson, Senior Scribe
Former Art Education Instructor, Miami University 

When young children pick up a crayon or pencil and make their first marks on paper, it is an exciting time. Scribbling is more than fun; it is an important activity for their perceptual and motor growth. It contributes to their creative development just as babbling does to speech development. Children from all cultures scribble. The way adults react to scribbling may positively or negatively affect a child’s increasing interest in visual and creative expression. You can play a significant role in seeing that a child receives maximum benefits from the scribbling activity. 

Most children go through three stages of scribbling. They start to scribble at about age two. In the first stage, they discover that they can make random marks with an object on a surface. It is a time of exploration. The child tries holding the tool and marking in various ways. It may seem awkward, but the child is demonstrating little motor ability in more complex skills. The ability will develop. 

Two-year old Brian made his first scribbles on the wall with cereal. If the proper opportunity and materials are not available, children may scribble in a manner and place that is undesirable. Scribbling is a natural activity, and Brian’s choices were probably a result of his exploring things at hand. 

As soon as children indicate an interest in scribbling, prepare an area where they can work. Protect surfaces, give them a shirt to cover their clothing and plenty of large blank paper such as newsprint, wrapping or shelf paper cut into manageable sizes. Large paper for scribbling encourages children to use more muscle effort and results in freer and bolder expressions. Other materials for scribbling can be colored crayons, chalk and chalkboard, thick poster paint (so that scribbles do not run) and brushes at least one-half inch wide. In the first two scribbling stages, using more than two colors at a time may distract them from the motor activity. Non-toxic modeling materials will encourage children to scribble in three dimensions. During warm weather, let them scribble with a bucket of water and brushes on the pavement. 

In this stage of random scribbling, children are delighted with the discovery of the marks they have made. They are not trying to draw anything. It is a motor activity, and they enjoy moving the marking tool across a surface. Since their attention span is short, the session may last only a few minutes. Even though they have little or no visual control over their scribbles, the activity is important as this movement over and over helps skills progress more quickly.  Adults should be facilitators providing time, encouragement and materials for the activity.  Only a positive atmosphere and attitude are needed.  Criticism is likely to discourage the child’s efforts at expression.  Scribbling stages two and three will be discussed in Part II.