Want To Improve Your Kids’ Writing? Let Them Draw

We love our kids’ first drawings. They draw before they write, so their drawings seem somehow miraculous in those early years - their first communication that is permanent and there for all to see.

Preschool is all about drawing and painting. Large canvasses of abstract finger paintings give way to recognisable broad stroke figures, houses, and sunny skies. We celebrate every image and give them pride of place on the fridge door.

The disappearance of children’s drawings

Once school starts, nobody really takes drawing seriously anymore. In the classroom, drawings begin to take second place to writing. Young children quickly learn that success at school is measured by how well you can read and write, not by how good your drawings are. Their drawings are now just decorations that they get to do if they finish their writing.

Too often in classrooms we view drawing as a crutch, or a distraction that we want children to grow out of, so they can focus on the ‘real’ task of writing.

But we seriously misunderstand the function of drawings, and their contribution to learning, if we think they are just what children do when they can’t yet write.

Drawing is not the evolutionary inferior to writing - writing and drawing are two distinct communication systems, and each deserves their place in the communicative repertoire of our children.

Drawing improves writing

Drawing and writing support each other. The poet e.e.cummings was both an artist and a writer, and when asked whether these two pursuits interfered with each other, he replied,

‘On the contrary, they love each other’

And his experience is backed up by the research.

Children who draw before they tackle writing tasks produce better writing - it’s longer, more syntactically sophisticated and has a greater variety of vocabulary. It is likely this is because the act of drawing concentrates the mind on the topic at hand, and provides an avenue for rehearsal before writing - rather like a first draft where they can sort things out before having to commit words to a page.

If you have ever read a 10 year old’s long and winding story you will know how much a first draft would enhance comprehensibility. And if you’ve ever taught 10 year olds you will also know they are not terribly inclined to do multiple written drafts. They’d rather sum up all their story’s inconsistencies with ‘It was all a dream’ than follow a teacher’s suggestion to go back and make significant changes.

As a first draft, drawings are much easier to erase, to add to, and to rearrange. They provide a common reference point for the teacher and the child to discuss the story before it is written, and this is an important additional oral rehearsal that strengthens the quality of the writing. Ideas are clarified and vocabulary strengthened.

The message to teachers is a simple one - instead of telling children they can draw a picture if they finish their writing, have them draw before writing.

Read more on... Want To Improve Your Kids’ Writing? Let Them Draw

Author: Misty Adoniou