Toddlers: Meaning-Making

Compared to symbolic play, in the visual realm of learning, young children's drawings often are not so obviously representational. They are developing a vocabulary of lines and shapes, and discrete forms or enclosures, such as, squares, circles, and crosses (Kellogg, 1969; Matthews, 1994a, b, 1997). By the end of their third year, various "aggregations"—combined forms—often appear, like sun shapes, or circles divided into quarters or eighths, like a pie, which is called a mandala. Eventually these symbols will relate to real things with which children are already familiar.  For example, a child may use mandalas in the windows of his house. In the meantime, nonrepresentational visual forms will be driven more by young children's desires to work out graphic language than to depict an object or event.

Naming of drawings, termed proto-symbolism, is often prompted by the appearance of the finished product. In other words, a child might draw something that looks like something he or she might recognize, such as a window, and the child might then announce "look, window." Names for two- and three-dimensional art works often reflect the child's interpretations of properties in the material. For example, the color and texture of paint might suggest to a child smoke, rain, or fire, whereas clay might suggest food or animal figures; blocks might represent dishes or tools and, later, buildings.

Toddlers use art materials in a way that often combines creating marks on paper with creating sound and making gestures. They derive pleasure from making marks that seem to represent paths on a page, like footprints (Matthews, 1997; Winner, 1986). Many parents and teachers have watched a toddler use a crayon to draw a squiggly line on a piece of paper while making "vrooom vrooom" sounds. Through such experiences, the pathway of the car itself and the mark it makes on the paper becomes the symbol, similar to the way in which the child would move a toy car across the floor during a play experience. However, the final, visual result or mark on the paper—which the child might even call "car"—looks simply like a squiggly line on a piece of paper. To the adult who has not seen the toddler drawing and creating sound effects, the name or title will make little sense. We must recognize that, in this case, the movement of the crayon is the meaningful experience for the toddler.

Similarly, young children begin to learn how to "read" pictures in books, on the walls of the child-care center, at the supermarket, and in basic symbolic letters or icons (e.g., the golden arches of McDonalds). When listening to an adult reading a story, young children often become engrossed with the pictures, point to them, and name them as enthusiastically as if they were real objects. For example, a child might point to a picture of a bottle, hold an imaginary bottle near the mouth, and pretend to suck. Musically, young children seem to focus predominantly on the quality and impressiveness of the sound of an instrument. Their musical creations are unpredictable sound explorations, and the elements of music, such as a steady underlying pulse, melodic structure (e.g., a tune), or rhythmic pattern—are not easy to recognize. Nonetheless, while their musical productions may appear random, often their musical explorations are purposeful, focused, and aesthetic. In similar ways, there dances and dramatic play often involve repetition of movement and exploration of thoughts and feelings that may be on a different plane from that of the adult's mind, but often involve a great deal of purpose and pleasure.