The benefits of drawing for kids: drawing is how they think
By Vlad Stan, founder of Kubrio
The biggest benefit of drawing for kids isn't the picture. Drawing is a way to think: when an idea is on paper, your kid can look at it, change it, and show it to someone else. In lab studies, people remember what they drew better than what they wrote, and students who draw while they read a science text understand it better. The evidence is strongest for older kids and adults, and it comes with conditions, so this guide shows what the research says, where it stops, and how to use drawing as a thinking tool at home with kids 6–13.
Read the transcript
Before kids write a single word, they draw.
A sun. A house. A family with very long arms.
Then, somewhere along the way, most of us stop. We decide we can't draw.
But drawing was never about pretty pictures. It's a way to think.
Draw a map, and you see where you're going.
Draw the steps, and you see where to start.
Draw the problem, and you see a way around it.
When an idea is on paper, a kid can look at it, change it, and show it to someone else.
And it starts with shapes they already know. A circle. A line. A curve.
Six steps later, it's a bear.
Then they make it their own. A bear with a jetpack? Why not!
Over a hundred free drawing guides, open to every kid. Grab a pencil.
Let them start.
What are the benefits of drawing for kids?
Drawing gives your kid three things that talking and writing don't give in the same way:
- A place to put an idea. A thought in your head disappears when the next one arrives. A sketch on paper stays there, and your kid can point at it.
- A way to see the problem. A map shows where you're going. A row of boxes shows the steps. A drawing of the problem often shows a way around it.
- Something to change. Erasing one line is cheaper than starting over, so a drawing invites a second try.
Drawing also builds the hand skills people usually mean when they talk about the benefits of drawing: fine motor control, looking closely, and patience. Those matter. But the thinking benefit is the one that lasts after a kid decides they "can't draw", and it's the reason this article exists. If you want the case for drawing as an art skill, read why kids should learn to draw.
Does drawing help kids remember what they learn?
It helps adults remember single words, by a wide margin. Wammes, Meade, and Fernandes (2016) ran seven free-recall experiments with university students. Participants either drew or wrote words like "truck" and "pear", then listed every word they could remember. In the first experiment, "participants recalled more than two times as many drawn than written words." Across the experiments, drawing also beat writing the word with extra detail, listing its physical features, picturing it in your head, and looking at a picture of it.
Two cautions before you apply that to your kid. First, the participants were adults aged 17 to 47, not children. Second, the task was remembering words, not learning a lesson. The effect is real and it replicates, but no study shows that your 8-year-old will remember twice as much.
Does drawing help kids understand, not just remember?
Yes, for older kids, when the drawing has a job. Schmeck, Mayer, and colleagues (2014) had eighth graders read a science text about influenza. Students who drew pictures of what they read scored higher on a comprehension test than students who only read, in both experiments. The students whose drawings were more accurate while they read also scored higher later.
Fiorella and Mayer (2016) collected the research on learning by drawing in their review of eight ways to promote generative learning. Drawing helped in 26 of 28 comparisons, with a median effect size of 0.40. They write that "the benefits of drawing have been found with elementary school students, high school students, and college students." They also call the evidence "preliminary" and add a condition that matters at home: "learning by drawing is most effective when students have a clear specification of what to draw and do not experience distracting mechanical problems in producing the drawings."
In plain words, "draw the water cycle" works better than "draw something about what you read." And a kid who is fighting the pencil has less attention left for the idea.
Does drawing work the same way for young kids?
Not always. Davison and Thomas (2001) studied children aged 5 to 8 and found that "under some conditions drawing can impair children's recall rather than facilitate it." In two of their experiments, drawing before or during recall lowered how many items 5- and 6-year-olds remembered.
Van Meter (2001) found something similar with older kids. In a study of fifth and sixth graders reading a science text, only the group that drew and then compared their drawing with the author's illustration scored significantly higher on free recall. Drawing plus a check beat drawing alone.
So the honest answer for a 6-year-old is that drawing is a great way to think out loud on paper, and a less reliable way to memorize. As kids get older and get better at drawing quickly, the learning benefits show up more clearly.
Why is drawing a tool for thinking, not just a talent?
Because the drawings that help kids think don't need to look good. A map is a dotted line and a star. A plan is three boxes and two arrows. A problem is a stick figure, a wall, and a question mark. None of those take talent, and all of them hold an idea still long enough to work on it.
Kids can sketch a plan before they build, too: the robot design ideas guide starts every robot on paper.
This is also where many kids stop. At some point, a lot of kids decide they can't draw, because they compare their drawings with pictures instead of using them as tools. A kid who learns that a drawing is allowed to be ugly keeps a thinking tool for life.
How do you turn drawing into a thinking tool at home?
Give the drawing one job, keep the drawing fast, and talk about it afterward. Each of these takes a sheet of paper and about ten minutes:
- Draw the plan. Before a Lego build, a birthday card, or a school project, ask your kid to draw three boxes: first, then, last. Then build.
- Draw the map. After a walk or a trip, ask them to draw the way you went, with one star for the best part.
- Draw the problem. When your kid is stuck on something, ask them to draw it, then ask, "Where could you go around it?"
- Draw what you read. After a chapter or a science video, ask for one drawing of what happened. Then compare it with the book's picture, the way Van Meter's fifth graders did.
- Draw it again. Once a week, ask your kid to redraw something from last week. The second drawing is almost always clearer, and they can see why.
Don't grade the drawings. The point is the thinking, not the line. If your kid gets stuck on how to draw a thing, a short guide removes that "mechanical problem" Fiorella and Mayer warn about: the free how to draw a bear guide turns a circle, a line, and a curve into a bear in six steps. The drawing library has more than a hundred and forty guides like it, each with a video, six steps on paper, and a printable sheet. For the teaching side, read how to teach kids to draw.
Where does Kubrio fit?
I built Kubrio's studios on the same idea, so take this section as a founder's description, not a review. Every Kubrio project starts with a drawing on paper: the kid draws first, and the AI builds from that drawing. Kubrio calls the rule the hand stays the hero.
In Comic Studio, your kid picks a message and draws three pictures on paper: the opening, the middle, and the ending. That's the plan, drawn. The AI redraws them in a chosen style and adds the pages between them, marked so you can see what it added. In The Robot Who Lost Its Beep, the result is an eight-page comic about a little robot and a hero who helps it, made in one sitting.
There are two kinds of projects for kids. The first kind ends on the fridge door. The second kind ends as a real thing other kids can read, watch, or play. Kubrio makes the second kind. Kids make them by directing the same AI the pros use. Both kinds start with a drawing, and the free guides cover the first kind with no account.
What to do at home this week
- Watch the 75-second film at the top of this page with your kid.
- Pick one job for a drawing: a plan, a map, or a problem.
- Give your kid paper and ten minutes. Don't fix anything.
- Ask them to explain the drawing to you, then ask one question about it.
- If they get stuck on how to draw a thing, open one drawing guide together.
- Keep the drawings in one folder, and look back at them at the end of the month.
Ingenious projects that inspire kids to make things — until they find the thing only they could make.
The Robot Who Lost Its Beep: your kid draws three pictures on paper and gets an eight-page comic of their own story. Or see everything your kid can make in Comic Studio. When you're ready, start here.
FAQ
What are the main benefits of drawing for kids? Drawing gives a kid a place to put an idea, a way to see a problem, and something they can change. It also builds fine motor control and close looking. In lab studies, people remember drawn words better than written ones, and eighth graders who drew while reading a science text understood it better.
Does my kid need to be good at drawing to get the benefits? No. Thinking drawings are maps, boxes, arrows, and stick figures. What helps is a clear job for the drawing and enough skill that the pencil doesn't get in the way. Short step-by-step guides help with the second part.
At what age does drawing start to help kids learn? Kids draw to express ideas long before they write. The learning research is clearest from about fifth grade up. For kids aged 5 to 8, one study found drawing can lower recall under some conditions, so use drawing to plan and explain rather than to memorize.
Is drawing better than writing notes? For remembering single words, adults recalled more than twice as many drawn words as written ones in one experiment. For notes from a lesson, the evidence is thinner. Sketchnotes are popular, but no solid study with children shows they beat written notes.
Are the Kubrio drawing guides free? Yes. The drawing guides are free for every kid, with no account. The studio projects they point to need a Kubrio plan.