How to Talk with Your Child About Their Art

About this guide

When a child hands you a drawing, the instinct is to say “Good job!” or ask “What is it?”. Both can quietly backfire: generic praise teaches children to draw for approval, and “What is it?” can make a child feel the drawing didn’t work.

This 10-page pocket conversation guide gives you a simple four-part framework instead, with phrases you can use straight away: notice what you see, ask how they made it, open up the story, and know what to say when your child feels a drawing didn’t turn out right.

What’s inside

1. 1

   Before you respond

   Why to avoid “Good job!” and “What is it?”, and what to do instead.

2. 2

   Prompt 1: Pure observation

   Say what you see, such as lines, colours and movement, without judging.

3. 3

   Prompt 2: Process and technique

   Invite your child to share how they made it: the tools, the decisions and the tricky parts.

4. 4

   Prompt 3: Story and imagination

   Questions that uncover what is happening in the picture and where it goes next.

5. 5

   Prompt 4: Handling self-criticism

   What to say when a child aged 7 to 11 says “This looks ugly” or “I messed up”.

6. 6

   Draw together

   Two pages to draw with your child and tick off the prompts you tried.

7. 7

   My notes and the conversation at a glance

   Space for the questions that opened up a story, plus the whole framework on one page.