Fine motor progress - his drawings

I believe that engaging the Neurosuit physiotherapist in the last few weeks has brought about much fine motor progress in my son.

My son's fine motor skill  is still far behind his peers but I am so glad to see the recent progress. I found some old photos of his drawings/scribblings so you can compare and see how he's progressed.

The "masterpiece" above was created a year and 4 mths ago (aged 3yrs 3mths). For a long time, he would draw his versions of smiley faces, or as you can see from the photo above, sad faces! (He said they were ghosts). Back then, he would use the marker to stab the whiteboard to "draw" the eyes.

That's the first time he drew anything else apart from circular scribbles and smiley faces. He said it was a forest, so I guess the vertical lines are the trees. Accordingt to drawing developmental milestones, representational drawings come in around 3 yrs of age. The chalk drawing above was made about 11 mths ago (aged 3 yrs 8mths).

A month later, he drew the sun. But from the wild circular scribbles on the page, you can see that he was still lacking control of his writing instrument. That crayon drawing was done about 10mths ago (aged 3 yrs 10mths).

I couldnt find any photos of his drawings between Sept'09 to June'10. It was also a time I was busy with other things (making Montessori materials, year end & CNY prep), adjusting to being a shadow aide, illnesses etc.

He started with the Neurosuit physiotherapist at end of April'10. Unfortunately he was catching one illness after another from end April to early June'10. The drawing of the spiral above was done at the end of June'10 (age 4yrs 6mths). You can also see his hand writing of the numbers 5,0,0,5,0,0,5,0,0 etc (we were doing a activity on patterns). There is better control of the whiteboard marker pen, as seen from the spiral lines.

This was done in early July, a few days ago (age 4 yrs 7mths). He no longer stabs the pencil onto the paper to draw the eyes. Just like his writing of the lower case letter “i”, he dots the eyes. He also is better able to “nicely” position the eyes and smile in the circle, although he isn’t able to do it ALL the time. Note that it is harder for him to write or draw using a pencil compared to marker pens cos he has to exert strength and his finger muscles aren’t as strong as it should be.

The little person with a triangular body at the bottom left corner was drawn by me, not my son. I’ve now forgotten why I drew it. But I do remember that we were at a restaurant at that time waiting for the food, and after I drew the little person, I went to buy a loaf of bread from the shop next door. When I came back, I was surprised to see that he tried to copy my drawing.

It looks like he started off with a head detached from the body, and one leg detached from the body and the other leg attached to the body. Then I think his second attempt shows a head, small body, both legs at the bottom of the body, and two arms attached to the head! That was the first time ever, he tried to copy a drawing, and the first attempt at drawing a person (not just a face).

We used the whiteboard today for an activity on even numbers/pairs. Then I drew the little person with a triangular body because he wanted to know how to draw one.

The drawings on the right were his attempts. First attempt was just a circle. Second attempt was the drawing on the most right, of a head, body and limbs but the head doesn’t sit on the top of the body. The third attempt was so much better: correct positioning of the parts AND, he’s made the eyes to be large circles with dots inside! I love it!

This was his fourth attempt. I think it looks so cute, like a character from Rugrats. Somehow, he didn’t have a circle for the head, just huge eyes and smile.

Note, the circle around the leg. He said “it’s broken”. I think he meant the circle to be a cast. When we did the “-ng” word list a week or two ago, it had the word “sling” to which I had inserted a photo of a man with his cast in a sling. I explained about casts. Teacher too had a few days ago mentioned about broken bones and a cast. So I guess, the circle around the leg is his version of a cast. I don’t quite understand why he chose to draw a cast. Any ideas?

Btw, if you're interested to find out about drawing developmental milestones, here's a link
http://www.learningdesign.com/Portfolio/DrawDev/kiddrawing.html