Describes constructive play and its importance to child development. Outlines the developmental changes in constructive play in young children, and identifies the benefits of this type of play for young children. Discusses the learning experiences of constructive play with art materials in early childhood settings, and describes strategies for…

This project explored the learning interchanges which took place between early childhood student teachers and young children, provoked by three-dimensional installations within a children's art exhibition. The exhibition, comprising both two- and three-dimensional artworks, contained over 280 artworks from 15 early childhood programs in the…

Offers suggestions for incorporating inexpensive art activities into early childhood classrooms. Suggests activities for children over 3 years in the areas of art using: paint and food coloring, drawing or scribbling, sculpture or construction, weaving and stitching, clay and dough, paper scraps, and broken crayons. Suggests craft activities for…

Discusses the renewed interest in clay as a modeling compound in early childhood programs; describes the nature of clay and presents a working vocabulary. Suggests methods of working with clay, including introducing clay to children, discovering its uses, clean up, firing clay, and finishing baked clay. Includes activity suggestions and…

This study describes the results of an empirical research project concerning the artistic abilities of children aged 4, 5 and 6 years and their development, when these children make drawings within a "guided" teaching intervention. This research is based on an operational use of Luquet's ideas, which have been used, not only as a…

The "Out of the Box" Festival of Early Childhood is a unique public event in Australia designed to enrich the creative and cultural lives of children aged 3-8 years and their communities. The research linked to this festival is based on the premise that parents' participation in, and value of the arts, impacts engagements with, and value…

Based on a longitudinal study of three children from birth, argues that children experiment with two dimensional representation much earlier than is commonly thought. Interaction between figurative and action modes of representation is described. Suggests symbolizations based on movement and time as well as configuration. (Author/AS)

Kellogg and O'Dell's criteria for designating children's art as pictures and Pitcher and Prelinger's collection of stories from children were examined for analogous patterns of structure. Results indicated that form, derived from a structure of repetition, is embodied by children as a metaphor for pictures or stories. (Author/SR)

Discusses children's use of crayons, markers, and other art materials at various developmental stages. Suggests art activities and guidelines for teachers for each developmental stage. (BB)

Maintains that children's art has value in its own right in that it can help children satisfy their need to create and express themselves by playing and experimenting with art materials. (BB)

Offers practical advice for teaching art in early childhood classrooms. Encourages respect for children's individual artistic style. Discusses paints and markers, blocks, fingerpaints, bubbles, collages, and other art materials. Includes recipes for fingerpaint. (GH)

Outlines the patterns and processes of visual representation which occur during early childhood and suggests some differences that may be apparent in relation to the young gifted child. Stages of development are described and the use of children's drawings as indicators of giftedness is also outlined. (Author/CR)

In the theoretical part of this paper, the author gives answers to the question of whether a real attachment relationship can exist between a child and a non-maternal caretaker. She introduces diagnostic meaning of children's drawings. The purpose of the study was to investigate how children's social behavior and their attachment to the…

We investigated the nature of graphic formulas in 5-, 7-, and 9-year-old children when they were asked to draw a house and a television in a free condition, and then to draw from photographs of these objects. Assuming that the frequency of occurrence of a feature in children's drawings reflects its semantic weight, we studied the relations between…

This article, first in a monthly series of six, presents a theoretical overview of artistic development in young children during the prerepresentational stage and draws implications from this for teachers on intervening in a child's artistic development through dialogues. (SJL)