When will my toddler learn how to scribble or draw?

When will my toddler learn how to scribble and draw?

It's a gradual process. Over the last few months of your baby's first year, his ability to use his hands, or his fine motor skills, will improve steadily. This means he'll be getting ready to pick up and use crayons.

When he's about 15 months old, your toddler may be able to scribble. However, if he needs a little longer, that's fine too.

From around 18 months old, your toddler will probably enjoy painting and drawing with crayons, washable felt tips, or paints. He will hold the crayon or brush with his whole hand, and scribble and paint with large movements.

Between two years old and three years old, your toddler will learn how to hold a crayon or brush using his thumb and first two fingers.

At first, your toddler will probably finish his picture and then tell you it is of Mummy or Daddy, or a pet, or a favourite toy. But as he grows, your toddler will plan what he's going to draw before he starts. This shows that he knows he can convey meaning with his pictures.

How can I encourage my toddler to scribble and draw?

Applaud these early doodles, which encourage a whole raft of new abilities: Drawing with a crayons involves fine motor skills such as grasping and holding, for instance, as well as boosting your child's visual acumen and tapping his imagination.

Set up your budding artist with big sheets of paper taped to the table or to the floor. Chart paper also makes useful drawing paper. A child-sized whiteboard or blackboard placed against the wall or an easel can help too. If you're concerned about anything getting messy, cover it up.

Offer your toddler thick, sturdy crayons, washable pens, chunky dustless chalk, or washable paints.

A fun activity you can do with your toddler is collecting leaves from a nearby park. Look for leaves of varying shapes and textures. Help your toddler to dip them into paint and place them on the paper to see what prints and patterns he can make. Even if it ends in a mess of paint and squashed leaves, he'll have fun getting there!

If he's tired of paints, try printing and stamping. Let him dip his hands and even his feet in paint and stamp them on a paper. Hand and footprints on paper make a great gift wrap or keepsake.

Tap into his interest in vegetables by brushing horizontally cut pieces of carrot (gajar) , or ladyfinger (bhindi) or potato (aloo) with paint to use as homemade stamps.

And don't forget finger-painting. While learning how to hold and manipulate an implement is important, finger-painting gives your toddler's fine motor skills and creativity a workout, too. You can make lots of creative shapes, animals and creatures and fire up his imagination.

It's best to let your child experiment and explore rather than giving him instructions. So let him put his hands in some paint, mix all the colours together, or scribble all over a piece of paper if he wants to. This will give him confidence in what he can achieve and it will also help him to feel a little more independent.

Whatever your toddler creates, praise it! You could also put it on display in your home. This will show him that you value what he creates.