Sammy is freely making marks on the blackboard he deeds little active encouragement to do It is clear from this that Sammy is acting autonomously and exercising his will in his actions. There must be a clear balance between child indicated and adult lead situations; this may vary from child to child depending on whether they are introverts or extroverts. A child’s creative development requires this balance, according to Bruce (2006), in order to be fully nurtured. Sammy has a range of different colors in which to explore independently.
This Will in theory enhance his self-image and provide him With a sense of control over his actions (Duffy, 1938). Drawing is important for young hillier because it is an open ended resource the boundaries for creativity are very wide ranging, this put the emphasis of mark making and creative freedom Write, 2007). The adult needs to consider the appropriateness of the different materials that are provided for Sammy, taking into consideration the aspect of physically holding the chalk shows that Sammy is developing hand to eye motor coordination (Bruce, 2006).
The ideal would be a balance between familiar and new materials to work with so that Sammy is not restricted by the creativity opportunities presented to him; at the same time not intimidated by too much hospice to new materials (Duffy, 1998). This is shown by the choice to colors that Sammy has and the familiar by the blackboard being the only medium to draw on. Sammy is making aesthetic and representational choices that are intentional, he is not using instructions or stencils, This means that the marks that he is making are indicators as to what is important to him (Duffy, 1998).
Prom the conversation Sammy has with the adult we find that he is representing a spider. Until the point of verifying that he has drawn a spider Gammas mind could be occupied by the many other possibilities of representation within the raring. Representation is a form of abstract thinking, it is ascribing attributes to ‘concepts’ that are linked to the empirical world but require imagination in order to form meaning. This shows that drawing is similar to play because they use both everyday experience combined With imagination to form new concepts and ideas (Broached et al, 2010).
Sammy uses this drawing activity to initiate conversation With the adult about his ideas and to express himself both verbally and non-verbally. (Write. 2007) states that drawing gives children the opportunity to communicate and be creative simultaneously. This in turn supports Krebs (1997) who claims that children show great flexibility in their cognitive capacity. This process of representation may happen in stages, According to Pigged (1951), drawing technique would moue from non-representational to representational. The child’s first images would be random scribbles and eventually reach a stage of visual accuracy.
This point View is disputed by Mathews (1994) points out that two-dimensional representation is a complex process rather than a stage. Mathews argues that drawing is context specific and Of an intentional nature to children. Early childhood practitioners should value children’s representations because they are valuable to the children themselves: however the creativity behind the drawing process is not influenced by merely acknowledging the child’s accomplishments. The Creativity is developed fort aspects of the child’s nature such as being open to change, flexible and innovative (Duffy, 1998).
The aspect of acknowledging Sammy work promotes his ability to comprehend and explore his life experience and to bridge understating of concepts about the world around him. It is argued by Write (2007) that abstract understanding can occur form drawing; to expand on this idea and claim that art is fundamental to the human condition because it provides a medium to expression. We can assume from these points that giving young children like Sammy the opportunity to draw is a very positive step tort cultivating their developmental capacity.
It is important to remember that pre-shaped activates may offer little encouragement to the creativity of children (Duffy, 1938). The role of practitioners and parents should focus on cultivating the sensitive nature of the child’s choice in the imagination process and not to be too fixed on trying to develop the child’s presentational skills. Focusing on trying to make Sammy a good drawer would take away from his imagination process; the adult notices this and gives Sammy the freedom to draw (Duffy, 1998).
Sammy at one point Starts to use his finger to rub the chalk on the blackboard this creates a smudging effect. It is clear from the initial confined area Of smudging that Sammy is more interested in the aesthetic effect of smudging the chalk rather than to erase his drawing. He is Offered a cloth to Wipe With by the adult Who perhaps is unaware that Sammy is enjoying the physical aspect of what he is doing. Sammy answers the adults suggestion with a ‘no’; this shows him confidently asserting that it is his drawing and it is he who is in control of the imagination process.
There are moments in the drawing session when Sammy is more engaged with what the adults; this is noticeable because he turns his head every few seconds towards the adults and waits for their response. Duffy (1998) argues that some form of intervention is necessary because representational drawing is when children intend to communicate and share ideas because of this some form to communication is necessary. The opposite of this is the non- interventionist approach, advocated y Duffy (1 938), this means there is no active interaction with the child.
This leaves the child free form adult expectations and that may outweigh the child’s own ideas and creative process. Duffy does also points out that sensitive and intuitive intervention can help the child in gaining knowledge. This analytical commentary has shown that young children’s apparently random marks have a deep meaning to them, the represent experiences and ideas. Adults; practitioners and parents, have an essential role to play in the involvement of a child’s imagination; a role of ensuring creativity is not confined but enhanced (Guar and Bruce, 1932).
