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Page:First steps in mental growth (1906).djvu/68

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DRAWING
49

fairly uniform left-to-right or back and forth motion of the hand producing slightly curved lines four to six inches in length, with a loop at each end, and having an upward slant of about thirty degrees. (See Fig. I, Nos. 3 and 4.) The left-to-right motion of the hand in marking first appeared in the second week of the fourteenth month, and by the end of the fifteenth month the movement was under good control; and, with few exceptions, it was the only motion made when penciling until the end of the eighteenth month.

It was in the early part of this period—middle of the fourteenth month—that the child first made purposive hand-movements with the pencil; that is, first tried to make marks. In other words, the first purposive marking began with the long, swinging motion producing the lines represented in Fig. 1, No. 3.

Third Stage.—In the latter part of the eighteenth month, the child showed a tendency to break away from the long, curved line returning upon itself, and to produce a greater variety of figures, most of which included three classes of lines: right to left, up and down, round and round, or circular (Fig. 1, No. 5). Sometimes the marking began with a side motion of the hand, then up and down strokes were made without lifting the pencil from the paper; then a circular swing would be introduced as if to vary the performance. This was clearly marking for fun, or merely to