The reading guide allows children to draw pictures to better express their thoughts and feelings. However, children of different ages and personalities have different ways of expression and characteristics of painting. Gardner, an American developmental psychologist, put forward the "U-line" theory of children's painting development, systematically analyzed the development of children's painting, and combined with a large number of children's paintings, revealed the important characteristics of artistic ability development from the perspectives of symbol system, cognition and emotional expression, thus dividing the development of children's painting into three parts.

1, graffiti stage (2-4 years old)

In the graffiti stage (2-4 years old), children draw through physical movements, and when they are older, they can recognize the colors or lines corresponding to non-visual symbols.

2. Plane stage (4-8 years old)

Graphic stage (4-8 years old), children's painting at this stage can have a certain purpose and content on the basis of graffiti. Their works are very interesting and unique in expression, reflecting their understanding of life and expressing their feelings. They began to name their symbols, such as drawing a circle casually, and he would tell you excitedly that it was the sun or watermelon. Children in this period need more communication to understand what they draw. They regard drawing as their favorite game and learn to draw in the game.

During this period, children begin to contact with social culture, gradually break away from self-centeredness and start to be realistic, but they will be under pressure because they can't reach their ideal goals. This stage is a critical period of development. If you give proper guidance, you can walk up a flight of stairs, otherwise you may give up painting because of pressure.

3. Realistic stage (after 9 years old)

In the realistic stage (9 years old+), after a period of exercise, the children who persist are more skilled and enter a higher artistic stage. Children reach the peak of painting development at the age of 5-6, with rich imagination and great creativity. At this stage, the focus of children's painting development is the expression of thoughts and feelings, rather than concrete works.

So we should encourage them to express themselves freely, provide them with enough painting materials and teach them how to use them, but don't restrict their expression. The key point is to activate and cultivate children's spontaneous creativity. After this peak, rich creativity will decrease with age, so if you insist on realism too early, you can't make any progress in art.

The above is an introduction to the development stage of children's painting. In the three stages of children's painting, the artistic ability of children in each stage is very different. Children's art education should grasp the growth characteristics of children at all stages, and don't impose the aesthetic taste of adults on children prematurely, otherwise it may limit the development of children's artistic ability. We must fully consider the golden combination of children's physical and mental development law and art science, and the tower structure will give children more room to play.