Drawing is regarded as a visual representation and it is said to be natural in kids. The question is, are your kids easily bored and unable to retain attention for a long period of time? It is time to unlock the natural ability in your kid to enable him or her to develop concentration or attention skills. This artistic activity is a powerful way to make kids more expressive, speak coherently, provide more details, unleash creativity, refine their motor skills and develop their attention span for life activities.
Drawing is a vital skill in life. From research finding, it is revealed that drawing is a superior activity in comparison to reading and writing. Drawing brings about the processing of information in diverse ways such as visual, semantics, and kinesthetic. Another study explained that the brain is built up of a system which consists of neural pathways that enhance attention when kids get involved in drawing. This helps their attention/ concentration skill to be heightened in every area of their life. When the attention or focus network of the brain is developed, kids’ intelligence increases.
Drawing is an art that is known to enable kids to become more artistic, creative, confident, productive as well as pay attention to details that make their potential fulfilled. One of the major setbacks to kids’ success in their endeavours is the lack of adequate attention. Truth be told, attention issues are faced by a lot of kids in their academic experiences. Weak attention is a roadblock to attaining greater achievements which could be as a result of illness, environmental factors and so many more. Absent-mindedness can be a blockade to noticing vital aspects of life. However, drawing can make possible the regaining of attention skills.
When kids take pleasure in doodling, painting, coloring and even drawing, they can be trained in the art of concentration and their ability to retain focus. Drawing can enable them to attain success in other areas. Drawing helps kids to discover the scope of paying attention to basic details, practicing an artistic project with keen interest and setting out to accomplish a goal which all points to attention.
Activities that Help kids to build attention skills:
- Doodling
Doodling refers to small mindless sketches, spontaneous marks, abstract patterns, images of landscapes, faces and other objects. Hence, you might be wondering how it can help kids to retain attention. Yes, this aspect of drawing can help improve kids focus and concentration because it goes beyond wasting your drawing tools such as pencils and papers. Recent research in Neuroscience revealed that doodling aid people to be focused, understand new concepts and store information. When involved in creating images or subjects of interest, attention increases, stress decreases and feelings are explored and expressed through drawing.
- Coloring/ painting
Coloring/painting is a major aspect of drawing that adds magic to the output. This simple act enables kids to focus on coloring with the lines or the object as well as being mindful of what they are doing at a particular moment. Coloring aids kids in memorizing certain information and the increase of their attention level. The frontal lobe is activated and the brain organizes information to focus on making the drawing stand out. The more kids color their objects, the more they increase their attention span to get things achieved. It boosts memory action that is responsible for concentration and focus which can be applied to other areas of life.
- Cartoon Drawing
This style of drawing keeps kids focused for a long period of time. Cartoons are humorous characters or animated characters that can be given captions. Kids love cartoons and drawing their favourite images is one way to develop their attention span. Drawing cartoons shows the whimsical aspects of the world with the use of exaggerated shapes, lines, colors to depict the tone and emotion of the intended image.
- Figure Drawing
Drawing figures improves concentration. When kids engage in figure drawing which is also referred to as stiff life drawing, their attention skill is greatly improved. This helps them to concentrate more on drawing the diverse aspects of the image. The objects of still life drawing include; human models, vehicles, nature items and other observed things around the environment. Figure drawing helps kids to learn the fundamentals of art, learn perspectives, shading techniques as well as proportions. Kids through figure drawing pay attention to capturing the images in the world as they view it. It helps them to have their minds focused on what can be seen.
- Caricature drawing
Caricature refers to the pictorial representation of images with distinct features that have exaggerated effect or initiate comic impact. Kids’ attention can be retained as they create funny-like images that show people or objects that are oversimplified as well as being over-dramatized. Kids pay close attention to this style of drawing as they enlarge and shrink an aspect of the image, personify the object or someone to depict their own image and so many others. Besides, much focus is required to get it right and ensure that their caricature goal is achieved. easy-to-follow guide on how to draw head angles.
- Line drawing
Line drawing is another helpful drawing activity to help kids retain attention. Kids can focus on the drawing of diverse kinds of lines such as straight lines, contours, curved lines, vertical lines, horizontal lines, diagonal lines, zigzag lines and many others. They can learn the essence of paying attention to angles and curves without the addition of other details.
In a nutshell, drawing is a useful activity that enables kids to focus on creating images, shapes and others. No matter the age of a kid, drawing helps to retain attention in all aspects. drawing makes them apt at paying attention to those things they are interested in and having the liberty to select what they intend to produce makes them concentrate more on getting it right. There are many benefits to be derived from drawing by kids of all ages. Kids should be allowed to explore, express and grow their drawing abilities. Drawing is fun and pleasurable; try it today!
