Making Theories of Artistic Development Meaningful By Mick Luehrman and Kathy unearth; Note

Piaget described characteristic behaviors, including artistic behaviors such as drawing, as evidence of how children think and what they do as they progress beyond developmental stages.

Kellogg (1970) studied and described a generalized sequence of visual characteristics for the development of children's symbols in pictures in early childhood. Gardner (1980) theorized a U-curve for artistic development. He described an apparent peak in the aesthetic qualities of symbol-making in children during early childhood, followed by a gradual decline in these qualities during middle schooling and the rebound that may come as adolescents consciously reacquire aesthetic sensibilities through learning.

A holistic view of development is the goal of these modern theorists, recognizing the interplay of social, physical, emotional, moral, linguistic and aesthetic development along with cognitive development.

There is growing recognition that the development of visual literacy is an important goal of arts education by providing students with multiple pathways to develop their critical thinking and communication skills, and by providing them with the means to interpret and negotiate the visual culture in which we are immersed. (Barrett, 2003); Eisner, 2003; Moline, 1995)

To keep the proper perspective when applying stage theory, it is important to remember that developmental stages are only generalizations intended to account for trends in large groups of children. Phase theory concepts should not be interpreted strictly, but should be referred to flexibly as general guidelines. It is important to remember that there is no prescriptive set of what to expect of an individual child of any particular age. However, they can, along with other diagnostic tools, provide a frame of reference for identifying particularly gifted or challenging students, or help make judgments about how to encourage an individual's artistic development.

We provide a variety of drawing media to suit children's tastes.
Write about how children work. Write down how they structured the drawing, what comments they might have made during the process, whether they paused or seemed to struggle with certain aspects.
If children worked together in a group, record any interactions or social effects.
Interview each child after the drawing experience, but be careful not to reflect the teacher's own beliefs in the situation.
It starts with a prompt to tell you about the picture.
Write your child's name and age (month if possible) on the back of the picture.
Take some time right after the activity to process and reflect on what happened, then add notes to observe these reflections.
During group activities, guardians usually tell stories about ‘their’ children and experiences working with them. They share information they learn from time to time about drawing and the physical, emotional, social and cultural factors that can affect a child's artistic or overall development.

As instructors, we also use this opportunity to reinforce the idea that a single picture is not sufficient evidence to draw definitive conclusions about a child's development.

After a discussion of the pictures grouped by developmental stage, students rearrange the pictures in chronological order according to the actual age of the children to gain a clearer understanding of the diversity within different grades.

The most commonly acknowledged benefit of learning about child development is the realization that newfound knowledge does not overlook individual needs, but teachers to create age-appropriate art curriculum materials and teach strategic large group instruction. Overall, the more teachers know about their students, the more they can provide appropriate instruction so that they are not left out.

Making Theories of Artistic Development Meaningful By Mick Luehrman and Kathy unearth; Note