"The ghosts went swimming"

Max was 2 years and 11 months and this example was the first in a series of his narrative. Max was fascinated by ghosts, his interest triggered by a cartoon he'd watched on television.

    He explained that the large circle represented the swimming pool, and the small marks within it represented several ghosts swimming. As Max drew, his 'story' unfolded.  The curving scribble-marks (lower left) represent his home, and the two diagonal lines leading from it, point to the route he walked from his home to the swimming pool.

• Taxonomy: Early explorations with intentional marks

"Follow the arrow"

Shereen was drawing a map at home, explaining, "You have to follow the arrow to find the ship which is in the middle of the map."

• Taxonomy: Explorations with signs and symbols

"You can go both ways"

Isaac was playing 'ice-cream vans' outside, using his dad's work van. At the end of his road there was a 'T' junction, and he wanted to make a road sign for his customers, to indicate that they could go left or right.

    Unsure quite how to do this, he asked his dad to help, and was very pleased with the result.

• Taxonomy: Explorations with signs and symbols

• Taxonomy: Explorations with signs and symbols

"Look! No chicken! You want mushroom?”

Drawing on her personal social and cultural knowledge of cafés, Shereen approached her friends for orders, creating wavy lines, scribble marks and a drawing of a mushroom in response.

     After a while, she asked her teacher Emma, “What you want: rice, chocolate, cake, chicken?” Emma said she didn’t want chicken and Shereen wrote a mark for “chicken” and drew a cross by it, clarifying, “It says “x” – no chicken". 

     Later, Emma said she would have chicken, but pointing to the “x” she had written, Shereen said, “Look! No chicken! You want mushroom?” Then, pointing to her drawing of a mushroom explained,“Look. A tick, that mean we got some".

Winning and losing

Harry and his friends had decided on a game they'd invented outside, and drew different signs to signify various messages to players. Pointing to the cross he'd drawn, Harry explained, "This is where you lose!" 

  Next, one of the boys drew a straight vertical line with several short lines crossing it horizontally. He explained: "‘It's such a long way, and it means you double-win the whole match."

• Taxonomy: Explorations with signs and symbols