Arizona Educator Proficiency Assessments (AEPA) Practice Exam 2025 - Free AEPA Practice Questions and Study Guide

Children begin to make controlled scribbles during the scribble stage, which typically occurs between the ages of 15 months and 3 years. During this stage of development, children start to explore their motor skills and gain more control over their hand movements. They begin to move beyond random marks on paper to more intentional shapes and patterns.

This period is essential for developing fine motor skills and laying the groundwork for more complex drawing abilities in the future. Children’s scribbles during this stage, though still simple and abstract, reflect their cognitive development and understanding of spatial relations as well as their creative expression.

In contrast, the sensory stage relates more to explorative behaviors and sensory experiences rather than focused scribbling, while the pre-schematic and schematic stages involve more advanced representational drawing, where children start to create recognizable objects and figures, moving beyond grappling with basic control of their writing instruments.