How to Praise a Child's Drawing: What to Say Instead of "Good Job"

In 1973, Mark Lepper and colleagues at Stanford published an experiment with children aged 3 to 5 at a nursery school: the paper by Lepper, Greene and Nisbett. They took children who already liked drawing with felt-tip markers and split them into three groups. One group was told in advance that they would get a certificate for drawing. Another group was given the certificate without being told beforehand, and the last group got nothing.

Later, when the drawing materials were put out during free play, the group that had been promised the certificate spent less time drawing than the other two groups. The usual reading is that drawing for its own sake had been replaced by drawing for the certificate.

The experiment used a certificate, not words of praise. Even so, I often think of it when considering how adults respond to a child’s drawing. In this post I write about research on praise and some things you can say instead of “good job” or “that’s beautiful”.

Research on praise

The best-known research on praise comes from the psychologist Carol Dweck and her colleagues. In a 1998 paper by Mueller and Dweck, fifth graders solved problems and were split into a group praised for ability (“you must be smart”) and a group praised for effort (“you must have worked hard”). After they then met harder problems and failed, the children praised for ability tended to show less persistence and less enjoyment than those praised for effort.

This was a study of problem solving, not drawing. It also cannot tell us whether “good job” works the same way as “you’re smart”.

A review of research on praise and children’s motivation is Henderlong and Lepper’s 2002 paper. It concludes that praise does not always raise motivation and does not always lower it. The effect depends on how it is given, including whether it comes across as sincere and whether it leaves the child’s sense of choosing for themselves intact.

I read these studies not as “stop praising”, but as “think a little about what you say and how”.

What is wrong with “good job”?

I don’t think saying “good job” is bad in itself. Children feel that the adult is pleased, and that makes them happy.

What concerns me is when it is the only thing we say. “Good job” is a verdict, so the conversation ends the moment it is said. If every drawing gets the same words, I think children notice that the adult is not really looking. And if all they receive are verdicts, they may start drawing to be called good. In Lepper’s experiment, drawing for a certificate reduced interest in drawing. I worry that drawing for an adult’s approval could shrink the pleasure of drawing in the same way.

What to say instead

Say what you see

This is the simplest, and it works for any drawing.

“There are lots of red swirls.” “Your line goes all the way to the edge of the paper.” “Only this part is yellow.”

You just put into words what you notice, with no judgment. The child can tell that you looked closely. It works for scribbles too.

Talk about how it was made

This means talking about the drawing as it was being made, rather than the finished picture.

“You drew this line slowly.” “You used lots of colours.” “You kept going to the end.” “You coloured this part really hard.”

I think this points in a similar direction to Dweck’s finding that praising effort worked better. How a child drew is something they decided, so they can use it the next time they draw.

Ask about the drawing

When you ask “What is it?”, a child may feel there is a right answer. Sometimes they have not decided what it is, and if an adult guesses wrong, they can be disappointed.

If you ask “Tell me about your drawing” or “Which part do you like best?”, the child gets to decide the answer. They don’t have to answer at all.

Say how you feel

“I like this colour.” “I’m glad you showed me.”

This shares the adult’s feelings instead of a verdict. You can show you are pleased without bringing in a standard like “good”.

Let the child decide

“Where should we hang it?” “Shall we show Grandma?”

Letting the child decide what happens to the drawing tells them, I think, that it is treated as their own work.

Things I would try to avoid

Comparing with other children. “Better than your brother’s” may be meant as praise, but it teaches the child to see drawings as a ranking.

Correcting. It is tempting to say “the sky is blue” or “people have necks”. The guide I mentioned in my earlier post Stages of Drawing in Young Children also recommends not correcting drawings at this age or asking children to copy set shapes.

Promising a reward for drawing. This is what the experiment at the top shows. While drawing is fun in itself, I believe it is better not to bring rewards into it.

If you have already said “good job”

Habits of speech do not change overnight. I think it is enough to add one thing you see after it. “Good job. There’s so much blue.” That alone turns a verdict into a conversation.

About Kinder Paint

I make Kinder Paint, a drawing app for children ages 2 to 6 on iPhone and iPad. I don’t think of it as a replacement for paper and crayons. With that said, a few things in the app relate to this post.

Drawings save to the device’s photos, and the canvases are lined up in the app’s Gallery. Putting a few side by side and talking about them, “Last time it was swirls, and today the circle is closed”, works well, I think, as a next step from saying what you see.

Paint Academy is a set of tracing lessons. When the child finishes one, the app shows a score and a celebration dialog. If you would rather not show the score, you can turn off Show Score in Parental Settings. Parental Settings open only after answering a multiplication question, so a child is unlikely to change it by accident. Paint Academy is part of the paid Kinder Paint Pro subscription, with a free trial lesson.

The basic drawing features are free, and the free plan saves up to three canvases. There are no ads and no account.

Getting Started with Kinder Paint covers the first session, and Stages of Drawing in Young Children covers how drawing develops.