The next important development is the ability to recognise an “inside” and an “outside” of those shapes. Our children begin to understand the communicative power of their mark making. This is also an introduction to the complex and abstract notion that written words are also symbols of meaning. Through the encouraging conversations and modelling from adults, their scribbles have now become recognisable as “things” to others. Mums, dads, grandparents and carers assign meaning to their scribbles, “Is that mummy?” “What a beautiful flower!” Gradually the scribbles shift from simply being an internal visceral pleasure for young children as the adults in their lives search for messages in their marks.Ĭircular shapes become heads, or the sun, or flowers.
‘Is that mummy?’ The Paessel Family/Flickr, CC BY
