Fine Motor in PreK (drawing)

Rachel Sonnier · August 2013

Question: Are 4 year olds supposed to be able to draw a picture of themselves?? Is that a developmentally appropriate task for this age group? I really have no clue. I'm looking for the new common core grade level expectations for our state, but I am not having much luck. I know DS is very behind with fine motor, but we are so not even anywhere close to drawing pictures, and I have already seen three "draw yourself/your favorite food/ etc" activities and I'm not sure how to help with this.

He is struggling with these activities, so he is doing other undesirable things that his teacher doesn't particularly care for (Getting frustrated, peeling name tags off of the table, etc). He currently has no modifications, or accommodations. We were "playing it by ear." Should I just wait and see, or call for a conference? How should I handle this? I want to challenge him, and have him do whatever he can do. I want to have high expectations for him, but his last eval put his grasping somewhere around 14 months, so is drawing pictures kind of unrealistic? What should be done about this in the classroom to (A) help him improve, and (B) help him not to get frustrated to the point where he gives up, or misbehaves? Any suggestions?

thefuturemrskudla · August 2013

Hi, does he have an IEP?

kar5162 · August 2013

I think the answer is generally yes, 4 year olds can usually do some approximation of a person. That said, I think it is still a pretty emerging skill at that level. What are they doing with him on these activities? What are the expectations?

DS has an IEP, but no modifications/accommodations for fine motor (I expect he might by K). He is in private preschool and they are encouraged at this age to draw it as they see it. So his picture of himself looks like...scribble. But he doesn't seem to mind. More recently he has been doing more intentional drawing. It doesn't look like a person, but he might draw a circle, some lines in random places, etc. My understanding is the first step is to really think your pictures are something - eventually they will actually start to look like something.

If his grasping skills are so far behind, it sounds like he could use OT for fine motor work. I would also encourage him to do it his way. If that is scribbling, great. If nothing else it will be good practice grasping, pressing, coloring etc, all of which need to develop before he can really make intentional representative pictures.

Rachel Sonnier · August 2013

He does not have an IEP or 504 plan yet. He knows what he wants to do, he just doesnt have the motor skills to do it. We encounter this issue in all fine motor activities. He loves Legos, but it's a nightmare. He knows exactly what he wants, he just can't pull it off and he gets super frustrated. Same with coloring and feeding. He is very bright otherwise. He has been in OT for 8 months.

MirandaHobbes · August 2013

My son (5 yo, pdd-nos) can't draw worth a lick. Other kids his age are drawing lots of recognizable drawings. Just this morning I asked him to draw a picture for his aunt's bday card. He said he didn't know what to draw. I suggested he draw a picture of his aunt with her dog. He whined that he didn't know how to draw a dog- but I told him to try. He half-heartedly drew some circles and lines and declared it a dog. The only thing he enjoys drawing are sprinklers and pipes, and you still cannot identify what it is. His handwriting is awful too and he suffers from all the textbook ASD traits associated with that- poor/too light grip, lack of spatial planning, etc. He is about to start kindy so I'll see what accomodations they can make, but I imagine typing his homework will be in his future, along with a writing program like "handwriting without tears".

Rachel Sonnier · August 2013

Thanks ladies!! I appreciate all of the input. We had therapy today, so I decided to have his OT contact his teacher to see what they could come up with together. I figure it couldn't hurt for us all to be on the same page.

lite-bright · August 2013

Yes. Drawing a figure of herself was something that DD1 practiced every day at her preschool (they did play-plans with pictures of what they were going to do in centers that day). She started out pretty simple & eventually got to the point where she'd draw something besides herself, but she has a very "stock" version of herself that she uses. And she still hasn't figured out that her hair falls down the sides of her face rather than being up in a mohawk.

She started out with fine motor & motor planning issues, although her OT said at the end of last year that the fine motor issues have basically resolved & now it's a neuro/planning issue rather than a physical one. She has a really hard time taking the idea of a person/animal and translating it to a drawing.

funchicken · August 2013

I think it's a great idea to have your OT work with his teacher for strategies to help him feel more successful with fine motor tasks. And he might not be as far away as you think from drawing simple figures. When we had my older DD evaluated last year her grasp tested at a 20 month level, but she could draw people pretty well (she had a lot of coping mechanisms to mask her deficits). We had her re-evaluated two months ago, and her grasp is now testing at a 48 month level, so she's not completely caught up, but she's made great progress in 12 months time. I hope that between continued therapy and starting kindy she'll be caught up in another 6 months.

Therapy did a lot to help with her frustration level at school. Once she could feel herself making progress, she was much more willing to try things she had avoided before.

Rachel Sonnier · August 2013

bubba2b said:

We had trouble with fine motor (minor but as a result of hypotonia) and delayed development. With an IEP, I had a hard time convincing school she required OT hours, not just consulting. Finally I got an IEP (who was subbing for the regular on maternity leave), who insisted on hours. I had been arguing the tri-grip is necessary for writing skills and dd couldn't write letters (also didn't understand them).

Throwing the tri grip (hope that's the right term) out there to you...when you go the IEP route.
Thanks! What is the tri-grip? I tried googling it and came up with a bunch of wacky things. LOL
Do you mean the correct from that they use to hold the pencil with in order to write? We aren't there yet, and hopefully with OT we can work our way towards it, but yeah, I agree that you need that to write.

He also has some mild hypotonia, and hyper reflexive joints, with no hand preference, and it seems like motor planning may play a part in it also? Not sure. We are seeing a neurologist in october to hopefully get it all sorted out. Thanks so much for the input!

Rachel Sonnier · August 2013

Thanks! We really can. We currently do 2 hours a week privately for OT/ 2 hours private speech, but they mainly work on regulating his sensory system, and gross motor during OT, although they do some fine motor. I think he probably needs more fine motor at this point. They do offer it in our school system, but from what I understand, they wouldn't come to our school. He would have to be bussed weekly to the school where they offer it. His school is working on getting him speech through the district (the SLP does come to our school weekly), so hopefully they can tack on some OT as well, even if he has to travel.

Princess_Lily · August 2013

https://otswithapps.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/drawing-development-in-students.png

This helped us to see where we are at developmentally. DS was drawing in 4yo style by 3yo. Every preschool day, I ask him to draw mommy a theme, like "Draw what your favorite task was today," or "Draw something you want to show daddy." I then title the drawing so daddy (and others could see and understand what DS was drawing.

The other day, we took sidewalk chaulk out and I asked him to draw mommy what his family looked like, he was able to 5 characters (mommy, daddy, DS, the dog & cat).

ETA: To clarify I was an Art Major, drew my whole life. Now when DS draws, he doesn't draw what the 4yo did in the "developmental chart" above. Personally I think that is a drawing of a child very close to 5yo. I think the whole point is generally with a 4yo drawing one could make out eyes, nose, mouth, hands. Whatever will encourage the child to simply draw is wonderful...whether its to scribble, or draw a Monet. The point is to get the child encouraged to find drawing/art a wonderful outlet for creativity.

kcisthebombdotcom · August 2013

Princess_Lily said:

https://otswithapps.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/drawing-development-in-students.png

This helped us to see where we are at developmentally. DS was drawing in 4yo style by 3yo. Every preschool day, I ask him to draw mommy a theme, like "Draw what your favorite task was today," or "Draw something you want to show daddy." I then title the drawing so daddy (and others could see and understand what DS was drawing.

The other day, we took sidewalk chaulk out and I asked him to draw mommy what his family looked like, he was able to 5 characters (mommy, daddy, DS, the dog & cat).

That's interesting. My son is in preschool in a mixed age classroom of typically developing 3-5 year olds. On family day the kids made shirts they drew a picture on and there was lots of artwork hanging. The five year olds seemed to have drawn people that looked like people. I'd say the rest had mostly faces on stick people if that. I don't recall seeing many detailed body parts like in the four year old picture on that site.

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