Movement into Shape

Separating and Combining Movement and Shapes

Before their second birthday, most children have already learnt that different movements make different shapes. For example, at twenty-one months Ben uses very different movements to make contrasts between shapes. He uses existing marks or lines on the paper as targets. He often dissects these, drawing arcs or push-pulls across them. Or else, he clusters dots or blobs at the beginnings or ends of lines (see Figure 17). The beginnings and ends of lines are important landmarks for children of this age and will continue to be so as they grow older (Athey, 1990; Matthews, 1999). Hannah also clusters marks at the beginnings and ends of lines, or groups dots and dashes around angles formed ...