»Do not touch it!« Today’s Children’s Visual Competencies in Comparison with the Pre-Digital Era in Light of their Art Educational Environment

Oct 15, 2026

Research examines how children’s visual competencies evolve through early childhood art education and how these develop across eras and learning environments. The study compares children’s plastic/spatial (3D) creative abilities with established kindergarten 2D picture-creating skills, and contrasts skills measured in the 1970s with those of children today. Findings indicate a deterioration in drawing development from 1974 onward, alongside less timely growth in modelling, while movement depictions emerge earlier in plastic arts. Results rely on long-term Visual Skills Lab research across Hungarian kindergartens using qualitative and quantitative methods with nearly a thousand children aged 3–7.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages22

Reading Time55 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Research aims and comparison framework

Findings on drawing and plastic arts

doi: 10.26529/cepsj.925 »Do not touch it!« Today’s Children’s Visual Competencies in Comparison with the Pre-Digital Era in Light of their Art Educational Environment Gabriella Pataky1 • The task of twenty-first century art education is to contribute to the blossoming of the child’s personality. In this article, I approach this challenge from two principal directions, both of which provide a window onto unfamiliar terrain. This project sought to answer the following research questions: How do plastic, spatial (3D) creative capacities develop, and how do they compare with the kindergarten’s accustomed advancement of picture-creating, planar (2D) capabilities? How do kindergartners’ skills as measured in the 1970s compare with those of kindergartners today? A follow-on project examined children’s skills in the context of built environment education, asking the questions: Where, and with whom, do children find the best conditions for creation and arts education? What kinds of environments are most favourable? The results showed a clear deterioration of children’s drawing development from 1974 until today, as well as from drawings in both studies to modelling today. However, a more promising discovery was that depictions of movement appear much sooner in the case of plastic arts works than in drawings. This opens the way to an orientation that in our increasingly urbanised world, can help our children grow into adults who responsibly shape our environment, sensitive to their own age, as self-possessed problem solvers, employing the toolkit of education through art. The study is based on ongoing, long-term research of the 3612+ Visual Skills Lab group, employing both qualitative and quantitative methods to evaluate the artistic proficiencies of nearly a thousand children, mostly aged 3–7, in dozens of kindergartens in Hungary, through hands-on exercises as well as surveys of teachers, parents and other interested parties. Keywords: art education environment, built environment education, design thinking, early childhood art education, visual competencies development 1 Faculty of Primary and Pre-School Education, Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary; [patakyella@gmail.com](patakyella@gmail.com). 76 »do not touch it!« today’s children’s visual competencies in comparison with ... »Ne dotikajte se!« Današnje vizualne kompetence otrokv primerjavi s preddigitalno dobo v luči njihovegalikovnovzgojnega okolja Gabriella Pataky • Naloga likovne vzgoje 21. stoletja je prispevati k razcvetu otrokove osebnosti. V tem prispevku se tega izziva lotevamo iz dveh glavnih smeri, ki obe ponujata pogled na nepoznan teren. Ta projekt je poskušal odgovoriti na naslednji raziskovalni vprašanji: kako se razvijajo plastične, prostorske (3D) ustvarjalne sposobnosti v primerjavi z običajnim napredovanjem slikovnih, dvodimenzionalnih (2D) zmožnosti otrok v vrtcu; kako se spretnosti otrok, vključenih v okolje vrtcev, merjene v 70. letih, primerjajo s spretnostmi otrok v vrtcih danes. Nadaljnji projekt je preučeval otrokove spretnosti v okviru vsebin prostorskega oblikovanja z naslednjimi vprašanji: v kakšnem okolju in s kom imajo otroci najboljšepogoje za ustvarjanje in likovno učenje; katera okolja so najprimernejša. Izsledki so pokazali očitno poslabšanje razvoja otroške risbe od leta 1974 do danes, in sicer v obeh študijah s področja risanja, pa tudi upadspodobnosti na področju plastičnega oblikovanja. Študija je pokazalatudi obetavne ugotovitve, da se upodobitve gibanja v otroških likovnih delih pojavijo prej na področju plastičnega oblikovanja kot na področju risanja. Ta spoznanja odpirajo pot smernic, ki lahko v našem vse bolj urbaniziranem svetu pomagajo otrokom, da odrastejo v osebe, ki zodgovornostjo oblikujejo naše okolje, občutljivo glede na svojo starost, kot samostojni reševalci problemov z uporabo orodij učenja skozi likovno vzgojo. Študija temelji na dolgoročni raziskavi skupine 3612+ Visual Skills Lab, ki uporablja kvalitativne in

FAQs

What research questions guide the study?

The study asks how plastic/spatial (3D) creative capacities develop and compare with kindergarten 2D picture-creating abilities, and how skills from the 1970s compare with skills of children today. A follow-on project also investigates which built environments and companions provide the best conditions for creation and arts education.

What did the study find about children’s drawing and modelling over time?

The results show a clear deterioration in children’s drawing development from 1974 to today and a decline when comparing drawings in both studies to modelling today.

Why is the built environment considered important for children’s art education?

The study explores where and with whom children find the most favourable conditions for creation and arts learning, and highlights an education-through-art approach that helps children grow into responsible adults who thoughtfully shape their environment.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Mafia Boss