Elizabeth Coates

Young children talking and drawing

Research related to how young children’s drawings change and develop is well documented and an extensive literature on this area can be traced back to the nineteenth century. Most of this literature, however, focuses on developmental aspects and largely fails to explore what would seem to be an essential ingredient in each drawing’s production—children’s simultaneous utterances which might potentially inform the nature and content of the work and help elucidate their intentions and processes of thinking. In this respect, Kress (1997) suggests that at times it seems as though it is only the end product being interpreted, whilst utterances which could help understanding are ignored; and Jameson (1968) opines that what children want to do is to talk to themselves in pictures, thereby weaving stories around the marks being made as a parallel to active fantasy play. These may or may not be true, but although the end products are something tangible which can be viewed by other than those present, what they cannot communicate is the social interaction, problem solving, conceptual and creative thinking, predicting, debate and introspection which may well be a fundamental attendant of the process of drawing. The relationship between children’s narrative and their drawing process, therefore, formed the basis for this investigation and built on both previous knowledge and many years of observing young children in early years settings. It focused upon children in the two age phases (three to four year olds—nursery, and four to five year olds—reception class) of the English Education Foundation Stage. Narrative observations were carried out during each drawing episode with pairs of children, and audio recordings were also made to complement these.

Early childhood policy and practice in England: twenty years of change

This article offers a chronological account and critical appraisal of changes to early childhood education and care (ECEC) services in England over the past 20 years. It describes the policy initiatives, educational interventions and research programmes introduced by successive governments that have effected significant changes to ECEC since 1990. The article covers four key areas: policies designed to reduce social inequality; the professionalisation of the childrens workforce and changing status of adults employed in preschool education and care settings; changes to early years pedagogy and the early years curriculum and finally how major research programmes such as the Effective Provision of Preschool Education project and the Millennium Cohort Study have informed our understanding of the effects of social disadvantage and the characteristics of ‘high-quality’ preschool provision that can alleviate this. There is now persuasive evidence that investment in state-maintained early education is highly cost effective, particularly for disadvantaged children. The current government, however, is shifting the burden of funding for professional training and high-quality integrated services for children and families from the state to the private and voluntary sectors. Time will tell if this is a backward step or movement in the right direction.

The Language of Appreciation through Talking and Making.

This paper sets out to examine the value of talk in the making, understanding and appreciation of Art at Key Stage One of the National Curriculum. First‐hand experience of both artworks and natural and made objects is important to young childrens aesthetic awareness and understanding but it also offers a means of developing a spoken and written vocabulary to describe and classify them. The spirit of co‐operation which seems to develop through exploration of objects provides opportunities for talk‐‐helping children to understand more clearly what they are doing and extending their powers of imagination, reasoning and problem‐solving. The use of works produced by artists, both originals and in reproduction, stimulates discussion as the children compare their attempts with the artists’ representations.

The essential role of scribbling in the imaginative and cognitive development of young children

This paper sets out to explore the thinking underpinning young children’s earliest drawings, often regarded as ‘scribbling.’ It questions whether the physical satisfaction of making marks is sufficient reward for this often repeated activity, or whether with each repetition children intend deeper meanings not apparent to the eyes of the adult beholder. The narrative, which frequently accompanies such drawings, indicates that far from being merely a mark-making activity, the scribbled work represents for children a means of communicating a story or an experience. Examination of the dual activity of drawing and talking forms the basis of a research study which highlights the contribution that observation can make towards our understanding of young children’s learning.