Developing drawing skill: Exploring the role of parental support and cultural learning

Abstract

Learning to draw is an important developmental milestone that most children achieve during their preschool years. Primary caregivers play a significant role in supporting this process, which may affect the pace of acquisition and subsequent unfolding of drawing ability. In this study, we aimed to investigate parental support in the context of children's drawing activity, complemented by quantifying the effects of four individual factor constructs of parental support for drawing. Our sample comprised 68 parent-child dyads with children aged 3.0–6.9 years. Parents completed an online survey about actions related to promoting the drawing abilities of their child, while children's drawing skill was measured with the Beery-Buktenica Test of Visual-Motor Integration. Contrary to our initial prediction, we found that parental support as a construct had no significant effect on children’s drawing skill. However, the component Scaffolding was positively associated with enhanced drawing skill. These results have important theoretical implications for understanding skill development within a cultural learning framework, and open up practical applications for art education and developmental studies.