Contrary to popular belief, doodling really is magic. Long associated as an idle activity, which distracts children from what they “should” be learning, there are actually endless benefits of doodling for children’s mental health and learning capacity (not to mention adults too).
The benefits of doodling includes fostering healthy brain development, improving its ability to retain information and enhancing future creativity. Even so, it can be overlooked and brushed off as insignificant, and actively discouraged for more “meaningful” or “serious” learning. In reality, doodling is one of the most impactful ways children learn. Doodling for a child is its first step towards handwriting and drawing.
The power of the doodle
As Humans, there are four ways in which we intake information to enable decisions to be made, these are, visual, auditory, reading/writing and kinaesthetic. In order to be able to really absorb the information we need to engage at least two of these, doodling requires them all, which is rather impressive! Sunnie Brown gives a great TED talk on the subject, and has written a book with a mission is to bring the power off the doodle to the world.
When left alone to doodle children make a choice over what colours to use, what shapes to make and how much pressure they apply to their drawing instrument of choice. They can decide the angle at which they will draw with said instrument, and all of this without an adult encouraging them to do things in the “correct” way.
Giving children permission to doodle in this way allows them space to enter into their own natural flow, their heart rate lowers and their thoughts slow. It is in this state that children learn best, in fact, people who doodle when receiving verbal information retain 29% more information than their counterparts, so perhaps the next time you need to have a conversation with a child and you really want them to take in what you are saying, do it whilst they are doodling.
Doodling is the opposite to being distracted!
I was a doodler at school, and was often reprimanded for it, accused of not focusing on what was being taught, not listening, and being distracted. What I now know is this could not be further from the truth. Doodling is the opposite to being distracting, it actually helps the brain to stay alert for long periods of time and enables information to be received more effectively.
Some schools and teachers have caught on to these benefits of doodling and are now introducing doodle books as part of their learning process. Students are being encouraging to use their doodle pads when the teacher is talking as a way to calm them and “keep them in the class” so to speak. Sketch notes, as they are referred to, are a way of incorporating drawings and symbols into note-taking. I still doodle now, on long phone calls or meetings I find it a really great way to stay present and stop myself from daydreaming.
Cultivating emotional intelligence
Perhaps the most impressive thing about the benefits of doodling for children is the positive effects it has on their emotional intelligence. which is why we decided upon the concept of our most recent journal, The Positive Doodle Diary, which helps to empower kids with self-esteem and confidence through creativity, and doodling is a big feature in the book.
For a child the doodling work is uniquely theirs and when asked they can tell you all sorts of stories about them. It gives them so much more ownership than if they where asked as a class to draw an elephant, or a dog for example.
Don’t get me wrong, those things are also fantastic for bolstering confidence, creativity and enhancing good mental health, but doodling is unique in its ability to also support absorption of information. All in all I have been really impressed with the benefits of doodling, and I hope it helps you to encourage you to try and incorporate it more with the children in your life.
Author bio
Finn Prevett is a leading mental health advocate. She is the co-founder of www.thepositiveplanners.com, an author, speaker and is training to become a life coach.
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Thanks for sharing about doodling, You are right doodling for a child is its first step towards handwriting and drawing.
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Interesting post. I have never thought about that about doodling. I think in some way, we all doodle. Thanks for sharing.
I know my daughter likes to doodle. Me, I’m not the best at it and don’t enjoy it as much. But I do love reading!
I was a doodler in school. Sometimes I would start off just making shapes then I would actually start doodling phrases the teacher would say. As I got older I’d doodle while at work while trying to figure out a solution to a work problem.
My daughter struggles with anxiety and she has really turned to drawing as an outlet.
Doodling really helps! I know that when my oldest was in public school, and my middle they were allowed to doodle during classtime to help ease their anxiety or perhaps if the middle was feeling overwhelmed, they were allowed to doddle quietly.
It’s an interesting point of view. I’ve never thought that doddle helps so much!
So true.. That’s why I let my nephew just do his doodling in a white board.
Such a helpful post, my daughter and I found out that doodling helps her to be relax most especially when she need to do a lot of things for her homework.
I wish this had been a thing when I was growing up. I doodled all the time and often got in trouble for not paying attention!
This helps really. I also do doodling when I’m stressed out and I’m telling my kids to do the same. Not just giving them a time to have fun but letting them express their feeling to doodling is a stress reliever. But i never knew that it has a broad benefits than i know. Thank you for sharing this!
Thanks for sharing about doodling, I am not good at any drawing. Looks like doodling helps kids while growing up.