BY BONNIE LAXTON-BLINKHORN, KINDICARE

MAY 26, 2023

The enormous eyes, toothy grins and toothpick limbs characteristic of self-portraits drawn by children in the early years offer amazing insights into how they see the world and the people they share it with. 

Children start experimenting with random marks and scribbles around the 12-month mark and as they get closer to two years old this quickly progresses to shapes and lines and more controlled scribbles.  

At around three-four-years you might notice your child experimenting with identifiable shapes, including circles and squares along with lines and dots, and this stage is often when children start producing their first self-portraits. 

These adorable, early self-portraits often comprise a big round face complete with recognisable features along with legs and arms directly attached to the head.  

By four years most children are including a body and embellishing their drawings with more details, including hands and feet and details such as ears and hair.   

It’s incredibly exciting when children start drawing self-portraits at home and you can encourage these early experiments by supplying basic materials including a mirror, some paper and a pot stocked with pencils, crayons or markers.  

Prompting your preschooler to think about what they can see in the mirror can help to get the creative juices flowing and you could also ask questions like: 

• What colour is your hair? Is it straight or curly? 
• How many teeth have you got when you smile? 
• Have you got freckles? 

 

These discussions, and the drawings that emerge from them, support your child develop to a strong sense of self and an awareness of the qualities that make them different to the people around them. They also make excellent fridge decorations!   

Self-portraits are also a cause for excitement in early education and care services, where educators work hard to provoke children’s curiosity and build the artistic confidence of little learners.   

Caroline Schaap, known as Miss Caz, is one of the early childhood teachers at Milestones Early Learning Ringwood and she is responsible for the four-year-old ‘Crocodiles’ in the kinder room. 

Miss Caz says that most of the children are mark making and experimenting with drawings of themselves and family when they arrive in her room and her job is to document their individual milestones and encourage these early attempts.   

“Self-portraits are a great way for children to reflect on what they see in themselves, and to create a snapshot of their self-identity at that moment in time.”  

“They can be a fabulous opportunity for children to really look at themselves and interpret what they see using art techniques, which can lead to many other learning experiences,” she says. 

Miss Caz says educators offer children a mirror and a wide variety of resources to see what resonates most and sparks their creativity. 

At Milestones Early Learning Ringwood self-portraits are used to keep track of the children’s progress and are part of the kinder assessments Miss Caz conducts with her Crocodiles at the start of each term.  

“One-by-one, the children sit with me, and I ask them to write their name and draw a picture of themselves along with simple shapes. Then I ask them a few questions, such as who their friends are at kinder, what they want to be when they grow up, what their super skill is and what they would like to learn at kinder this term.” 

Miss Caz says the most exciting part of these mini meetings happens when she pulls out the assessments from the previous term and asks the children to tell her what they notice.   

“Inevitably, they focus on their self-portrait, identifying what they drew and didn’t draw last time around. We talk a lot about the growth they have made, and it is a really beautiful time of bonding and reflection between the children and me, as we celebrate their learning together.”  

Over at Milestones Early Learning in Werribee, centre director Erin Bonehill says many children follow a similar developmental pattern when it comes to drawing self-portraits. 

“Children begin by drawing faces and parts of the face, such as the eyes, nose and mouth and then start putting it all together.” 

Importantly, Erin says children are able to describe what they are drawing and so even if the facial features don’t look like the parts they are supposed to be, this follows, as children start putting all the elements together and experimenting with different shapes and placements.  

Above and beyond practising their all-important fine motor skills, Erin says children learn a lot about themselves through the process of creating self-portraits, also it is super fun! 

“Children gain a strong sense of self identity and knowledge of themselves when they use a mirror to draw a self-portrait. The process also helps them build knowledge about themselves and their abilities as people in the community and the wider world,” she says. 

Erin says these lovely likenesses also reveal important information that can be helpful for parents and educators such as what children know about themselves and how they think people view them. 

While many children start creating self-portraits without provocation, Erin says parents can excite curiosity and interest by providing a wide range of tools and resources, such as paint, glue, coloured pencils, crayons, pastels and paint brushes.  

“Extending the tools on offer allows children to further their skills and think about themselves more thoroughly through the process of artistic expression,” says Erin. 

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