Made with Humane Club
How to Teach Visual Communication to Preschoolers (Age 3-5)
Co-authored with Ritvvij Parrikh.
Around the time Sabi was 1.5 to 2 years old, she hit a stubborn phase, teeming with her own ideas but lacking the language skills to express them. This led to bouts of frustration and tantrums.
Hence, we started teaching her to visual communication—essentially doodling—as a temporary yet powerful way to articulate her thoughts. While not a replacement for verbal or written communication, it serves as an excellent complement, particularly for abstract concepts.
Why teach Visual Communication
Grasp Ideas
CopiedApril 2020: As the pandemic escalated, we used doodles to teach Sabi about viruses and hygiene. This project evolved into behavior-change cards, eventually downloaded by 200+ mothers.
Note Taking
Over time we started finding visual notes to herself:
- Note to remind herself about the dangers of climbing onto the balcony railing.
- Note to remind herself not to get stray kittens and puppies to home.
CopiedSabi motivating herself to endure through Math.
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CopiedForward Planning
Quarantine blurred our daily routines. As a family, we established a new schedule, and Sabi doodled her own version.
CopiedShe planned out hilarious pranks to play on her dad:
- Switch on the fan when dad comes from bathing (in Delhi winter).
- When he is focused on the work, sneak behind him and shout in ears
- Hide behind door and when dad walks in then shout and scare
- When dad is sleeping, sleep on him.
- When dad sleeps, sneak up and tickle feet.
- Throw a lizard on dad.
- …
CopiedIn October, we were scheduled to trek a mountain. In this doodle, she is planning how she’ll start building her endurance for the trek.
CopiedVisioning
She drew comparisons between the hierarchy in her Karate Dojo and that of masters in Kung Fu Panda.
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Expressing Grief
As time passed by, she got introduced to the concept of death and that she had grandparents who passed away before she was born. She expressed her emotion visually.
CopiedStorytelling
Today, Sabi wanted to write story book but realized she doesn’t know how to write words. What could be better idea than explaining it with simple drawings?
CopiedHow we taught Visual Communication
As engineers and designers ourselves, we have been trained to draw and communicate visually. However, we weren’t sure how to formally teach this skill. Hence, we went ahead and bought few books on the topic.
- Dan Roam’s Show and Tell, The Back of the Napkin, Draw to Win and Bla Bla Bla.
- Willemien Brand’s books: Visual Thinking, Visual Doing, Visual Doing Workbook, Visual Thinking Workbook
- Doodle Revolution
One of the key principles of parenting is — Children do what you do. So we started learning from these books.
As she gained interest in doodling, we gave her the space and freedom to draw on walls or anywhere she’d like at home and in the office. This facilitated a fun and creative way to engage Sabi’s intellect, helping her to express her ideas and emotions through art.
