Sunday, May 27, 2012

Drawing a cat

When I started homeschooling my son in December last year, I had the impression that he didn't know how to draw anything all by himself.  I had not seen him draw anything independently, although I noticed that he loved connecting dots and tracing dotted lines. He appeared to abhor coloring, and I devoted extra time to train him to tolerate, if not like,  coloring pictures.

In January I discovered that he already knows how to draw the parts of a human face -- eyes, nose, mouth -- inside an oval representing the
head.  I instructed him to complete the face of the angel on the worksheet.  I was ready to help him, so I had my own copy of the worksheet and I was planing to draw the parts that I wanted him to copy.  I was surprised when after drawing eyes, which was different from my sample drawing, he continued with the nose and mouth.  Now, he can draw the whole face, with ears, hair, and neck.  He still forgets the eyebrows.  

In our last visit to his developmental pediatrician, he was asked to draw a face.  He did.  The physician then drew an image which looked like the UK flag.  She drew it so fast, and my son whined when she asked him to copy it.  My son did not move his hands.  She noticed that my son's eyelids were drooping.  I explained that he seems to shut down when presented with a task that he feels is too complex for his abilities, and that I have seen him with drooping eyelids during our lessons.  

He was able to draw the UK flag at home, but I had to show him first how to draw it step by step, a technique that always works for him.  Breaking a task into smaller, simpler steps made him less intimidated.  Aside from the human face, he can now independently draw an apple with stem and a leaf, a house with a door and a window, sun, moon, ball, and the basic shapes.  I love to watch him pause, look at his incomplete drawing, turn his gaze somewhere as he try to recall the missing parts, then complete the illustration.  

I know that I eventually need to train him to copy a picture without the step by step instructions, but while I'm teaching him to like drawing and coloring activities, I'll stick to this technique.

This week, I taught my son how to draw a cat's head.

The model, drawn step by step:


First attempt, with step by step guide:

Second attempt, no step by step guide, but the model was left on the desk.

Third attempt, same condition as in the second attempt:

Fourth attempt, the model was kept away, prompts were given only for the parts (whiskers and ears) he forgot:

After several hours, fifth attempt, same condition as in the forth attempt (he needed reminder for the whiskers and ears, again): 

The following day, sixth attempt, no prompting or reminders needed:

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