By Aaron Cordy
THE act of sitting at the kitchen table or down on the floor and freely squiggling with the kids can be easily overlooked in our busy lives, but it is so important for a child’s development, both for core memories with a parent or carer and as part of their cognitive skill building and imagination development.
It is this understanding of the importance of drawing with children that inspired Squiggle Kids, who visited several childcare centres in the region last week.
Developed by Debbie Isaac, a Melbourne-based paediatric occupational therapist and drawing enthusiast and Lauren Gardiner, a Melbourne mum of three and author of the Baby + Me book, Squiggle Kids hold workshops for kindergarten and pre-school-aged children and their parents to play through basic drawing skills.
“One of the things we’re really trying to get across is children love adults drawing with them, or drawing in the company of adults,” said Debbie Isaac.
“Kids just need the chance to be allowed to explore. It was really interesting; we had a couple of children sitting on their mum’s lap and we put some colours in front of them and they just did these beautiful drawings. They just kept going. We were having a chat, but the kids couldn’t help themselves.”
It’s a group involvement philosophy that Squiggle Kids aims for. While drawing is often seen as an individual task, Squiggle Kids lay out large sheets of paper on desks and on floors which all the kids can draw on together. This also comes back to the importance of drawing with parents and carers.
“We came under the banner of communication, and I thought that was really interesting for me as an OT because I thought, is that not a speech kind of thing? I started thinking about it. We are talking and drawing with the children, and there’s this whole thing going on and they might be telling this whole story,” said Debbie
What children draw is not as important as the act itself. The pathways being trained in their developing brains are connecting lines to future skills like writing. Being in company, be it with other children or adults, also teaches children to express themselves openly and socially.
In their fourth year, Squiggle Kids is looking to continue to grow its workshops as they watch the development of past participants and the improvement in skills of the children.
“There’s lots of group time for stories and singing, celebrating a birthday or an event but I think drawing and painting is pretty much assigned to one of the options. I don’t think it’s an option, it’s essential,” said Debbie
Visit memobooks.com.au/squigglekids/ to learn more about Squiggle Kids, or follow them on Facebook.
