The child shows increasing motor control in the use of the crayon. Although spontaneous, they reveal the child s capacity to form an intention and to follow through with action. When children scribble, they are showing an awareness of figure and ground. This means the child is aware of the surface and what is written on it. By the age of 3, children draw shapes.
Scribbles evolve into emerging shapes.
With increasing control and coordination, children make their first shapes. At first, these shapes emerge from scribbles. Then there is a moment when children lift the crayon from the paper and then deliberately draw a distinct shape. They may decorate this shape with scribbles. A parent may only be able to see the shape buried behind the rest of the drawing.