Teaching your child how to draw can be your first step towards incorporating art into his life. Studies show that children who invest in producing artwork have an all-rounded brain development. Not only does it give children an outlet to express themselves, but it also helps with developing their hand-eye coordination and teaches them important concepts such as the color wheel, proportion, perspective, balance, and much more.

Apart from building important physical traits, child psychologists over the years have recommended drawing and artwork to help develop your young one’s EQ or emotional quotient. This can play a significant role in the preservation and stable development of your child’s mental health. Art has proved to be a natural way of treating depression and anxiety in adults and children with artistic abilities are known to be less prone to these diseases.

Some child psychiatrists have found that art and drawing, in particular, could speed up the development of your child’s brain. Art is a well-known way of helping young children with autism and other diseases. It builds coping mechanisms in children to control their day-to-day activities. Drawing is also known to help children with learning difficulties like dyslexia or dysgraphia, overcome or manage these challenges. It is important to understand that art isn’t a treatment for these diseases. It is instead a useful tool to help with the overall treatment and works as a support system for these children on a regular basis. Parents should also remember not to get frustrated with the pace of artistic development in their kids. Each child has his own pace of growth and expression.

Learning how to draw should be a fun activity for your child and he shouldn’t feel that the skill or habit is forced upon him. Make sure you do not demand your child to draw when he’s not in the mood for it. Instead, make it a part of his routine and try to build it in an organic and fun way. Here is a guide that you can use when teaching your child how to draw to ensure he develops the skill of drawing without becoming either demotivated or pressured.

One of the most important things that you must keep in mind when teaching your child how to draw is to give them space and the tools for them to explore art and drawing. Young children tend to be curious and try to express themselves in unique ways that can be easily misunderstood as incapacity or lack of skill. The trick is to keep them engaged with the activity long enough for it to have a positive impact. You should tackle this based on the age of your child.

Teaching preschoolers how to draw might seem like a difficult task, but the aim here is to encourage the child to explore whatever it is that he wants to through the medium of art and drawing. A few tips that you can keep in mind are:

• Incorporate art and drawing into play-time. Make it an experience that your child with associate with fun.
• Set up the space for success by removing any sources of frustrations. Have an outfit ready that your child can get dirty and lay down newspapers on the floor.
• Your child will be excited by everything new at this young age. Do not limit your child to only drawing tools. Instead, let him use chalk, sand, and paint to express himself and to understand objects.
• Do not teach your child how to draw. Instead, let him make all the decisions. If he wants to draw himself with pink hair, then do not correct him. Instead, praise his efforts and talk to him about what he has drawn.
• Use the observations to ask your child questions about what he has drawn. This will help your child with his story-telling capabilities and might even revise or add to the drawing.
• Art can be a great way to deal with emotions that your child finds too difficult to express or process. If your child is angry, ask him to make an angry picture.
• Showcase his drawings to encourage his practice. Remember, it is not the finished product that we are after, but to help associate good feelings towards art.

In this way, you can attract your child’s interest towards arts and crafts. Don’t force them and let them learn on your own. Multibhashi also offers online classes for teaching arts and crafts specialized for little children. Do give it a look- Learn crafts for kids.

Have fun!