A child who is not a miniature adult

For a long time, the essay says, a child was treated as a miniature adult, and a child’s own temperament and bent were not recognised. As the importance of human rights was more widely felt, that way of seeing and treating a child came to be understood as a threat to a child’s rights, and a field of childhood was at last allowed to stand. The younger the child, the more interest they often show in making art. Studies have looked for the reason; the one that stands out, the writer says, is that a child can put a thought, a feeling, or an imagining down as they like.

Kramer (1979) called children’s art the construction of a purposeful symbol. Rubin (1984) called it a turning of an unacceptable act into an acceptable one by sublimation. Rambert (1964) called it a spontaneous method of a child’s self-expression. Among the developmental sequences actually used in a classroom, the writer finds Viktor Lowenfeld’s the one most often applied. The account of the stages is taken from No Su-san, “Teachers’ and parents’ perceptions of children’s art education,” master’s thesis, Gachon University, 2006, pages 11–13.

From a scribble to a tree with roots, and a crisis at thirteen

The first stage is scribbling, at ages two to five. It matters, the notes say, as the start of self-expression. A drawing is made freely, without order or control, as the hand swings; a child may also make a run of larger and smaller circles, and take colour as it comes to the hand, without much thought of colour as such. Even so, a child may already give a drawing a name, and a sense of self can appear in that naming, still half unconscious.

The second is the pre-schematic stage, marked at ages four to seven. It is the first time a realistic expression is made. A schema is formed subjectively, and little weight is given to whether it matches, or fails to match, an objective fact. The third is the schematic stage, at seven to nine. A child who has already learned the concept of a thing puts it into a drawing, so the work is schematic and symbolic: a tree, for example, is given roots and a trunk, and leaves at the end of the trunk.

The fourth is the peer-group stage, at nine to eleven. A sense of the self appears together with a recognition of the outer world, so schematic marks recede and more realistic ones gradually widen. The fifth, which the page calls pseudo-realism, is at eleven to thirteen, and puts its weight on a rational expression. Through observed description a child tries to render volume and perspective. A crisis can also appear, when skill and technique cannot keep up with the child’s idea of the outer world. The last stage is the period of decision, at thirteen to fourteen. It is, the writer says, a crisis of creative work. As before, descriptive skill cannot catch up with a concept of reality, and a doubt about making sets in.

Not a lesson in copying an adult picture

Looking at those stages, the writer finds that a child’s art already holds, together, a child’s cognition, a grasp of the outer world, a sense of logic, and a life with others. It is not only an artistic activity in a narrow sense. Education in children’s art, then, has to take those qualities seriously. It is not a technical lesson so that a child will draw a better picture, or copy a picture at an adult level. It is, instead, a sound and creative activity through which a child may develop in the body, in thought, in language, and in a life with others, and may found a healthy self-concept and a sense of being human.

Three emphases follow. First, the work should be centred on the child: free and interesting, not one-sided or forced, if the whole development just named is to take place. Second, there should be a visible making of form, so that an inner world is shown and confirmed, and can become the ground of looking again. Third, the work should be visual: an experience taken in through the eyes is inward, and an inner world is given a shape. The same Korean report, at fuller length, is on CampusDown.

Sources

1. Korean essay on the character of children’s art, Lowenfeld’s developmental stages, and the aims of children’s art education.
2. Viktor Lowenfeld’s stages, as set out in No Su-san, “Teachers’ and parents’ perceptions of children’s art education,” master’s thesis, Gachon University, 2006, pp. 11–13.
3. Kramer (1979), Rubin (1984), and Rambert (1964), as the essay cites those definitions.

Last updated: 14 November 2026