Creative Development: Ages 3-5

Seven ways your child develops creative-thinking skills

As your child scribbles with crayons, makes collages with buttons and feathers, and builds with all kinds of blocks, she develops ideas about the world and communicates her thoughts and feelings. As she grows, she thinks creatively and expresses her ideas and feelings visually. Here are some ways her creative skill set develops:

1. Discover that she can place blocks or make marks on paper in a way that represents an object’s features.
2. Draw recognizable shapes, such as circles, ovals, rectangles, triangles, crosses, and combinations of these shapes.
3. Begin creating with a specific intention — wanting to draw a man or build a firehouse.
4. Acquire a sense of ownership of his creations.
5. Attempt to use graphic symbols to represent objects.
6. Respond to an accidental slip of the marker or drips from the brush by incorporating them into the story or the drawing: “Then it began to rain — see the drops of purple rain? Then ...”
7. Visually represent particular emotions, such as joy, sadness, and anger.