Drawing or ‘squiggling’ as we like to call it is more than just a fun activity for your little ones; it's a powerful tool that contributes significantly to their overall development. From fine motor skills to cognitive abilities, here are five ways drawing can positively impact your child's growth and learning journey.
1. Enhances Fine Motor Skills
Drawing involves precise movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists, which helps children develop fine motor skills. As they grasp crayons, markers or pencils and control their movements to colour, create shapes and lines, they strengthen muscles and therefore improve coordination. These skills are crucial not only for when they begin to write but also for everyday tasks like tying shoelaces and buttoning up their clothes.
2. Ignites Creativity and Imagination
Drawing encourages children to unleash their creativity and imagination. When given the freedom to draw, children can express their thoughts, feelings, and ideas visually. This process encourages creative thinking, problem-solving abilities, and the ability to think outside the box—an essential skill in today's innovative world.
3. Develops Concentration and Focus
Engaging in drawing requires concentration and focus as children concentrate on translating their ideas into visual representations. Over time, as they practice drawing, they learn to pay attention to details and stay engaged in tasks. These skills transfer to academic tasks and other activities requiring sustained attention. An excellent way to prepare them for those long days at school.
4. Encourages Emotional Expression
For children, drawing serves as a non-verbal means of communication. It allows them to express complex emotions and experiences that they may find difficult to articulate verbally. Through their artwork, children can convey joy, sadness, fear, excitement, and more, as caregivers or parents, this allows us insight into their inner imaginative world.
5. Promotes Language and Literacy Skills
Drawing can play a role in developing language and literacy skills in young children. Incorporating educational drawing into their everyday activities can help to boost their learning. At My Squiggle we have a variety of reusable colouring mats to make learning fun! Help your child learn their alphabet, explore colours, farm life or master the wonderful world of numbers & shapes. Whichever your child is most interested in, you can rest assured our reusable silicone drawing mats are up for the job!
Help them ignite their love for drawing
As parents and caregivers, you can support your child's drawing development by providing them with ample opportunities to draw. Here are our top tips:
- Supply a Variety of Drawing Materials: Offer crayons, coloured pencils, markers, and different types of paper to encourage experimentation and creativity. Our reusable colouring mats are an excellent addition to your Child's creative space, allowing them to draw on a different material whilst using our non-toxic markers.
- Create a Dedicated Drawing Space: Designate a corner in your home where your child can draw comfortably, with easy access to their drawing supplies. Our travel friendly case also makes it easy to pack up the My Squiggle Drawing Mat and take it with you on your next car ride or holiday, helping you take your dedicated drawing space on the go!
- Encourage Exploration: Encourage your child to explore different subjects and styles in their drawings, this can be done using a selection of the My Squiggle Mats, shop our range of drawing mats here.
Drawing is a valuable tool that supports development in your children. By encouraging their fine motor skills, creativity, concentration, emotional expression, and language abilities through drawing, you empower them to grow into confident humans.
At My Squiggle we are here to make your life easy with our reusable silicone drawing mat, not only will our drawing mats keep your little one busy for hours, but our mats also eliminate waste; simply squiggle, wipe clean and squiggle again. Gone are the days of churning through sheets of paper & filling up that recycling bin. We are passionately committed to inspiring imagination, spreading joy, and promoting eco-friendly practices.
Browse our range of silicone drawing mats here. Happy Squiggling!