Reasons for Sketching

There are lots of reasons to encourage students to sketch. The research is clear that sketching significantly boosts memory retention, improving recall and long term understanding.

When children sketch and write their observations, they engage multiple neural pathways:

  • Looking at the image (occipital lobe),

  • Drawing (parietal lobe/hand-brain connection),

  • Writing (parietal lobe/hand-brain connection)—

    This leading to a "triple reinforcement" of the ideas. Far more than students typically get when they are just listening to a teacher talk to them.

Furthermore, activities that encourage manual dexterity, like sketching, are crucial for appropriate brain development, a skill that has often taken a back seat in modern education that prioritizes abstract concepts and typing

But I think, as a parent, that in a world filled with digital distractions and constant screen time, sketching offers children a critical opportunity to cultivate focus and be truly present in the moment. This is far and away the most valuable gift that we can give our children and that the world is trying to deny to kids.