Doodle your feelings, three-year-olds told in Britain

LONDON - Children as young as three have been asked by a council in Britain to “draw how they feel when they are in nursery”, which a parent described as nonsense and comedy gold.

Whitehall council is consulting the children on their satisfaction with nursery life as part of a review of childcare provision.

Three-year-olds have been told to “draw how they feel when they are in nursery” before their doodles are sent to experts for analysis, Daily Mail reported Monday.

A parent, however, termed it as “nonsense” and a waste of taxpayers’ money.

Gavin Ames, of Maidenhead, Berkshire, whose three-year-old son Freddie was consulted on his thoughts, called it “comedy gold”.

He said: “To ask three-year-olds to draw how they feel while in a particular place does seem to be a rather abstract concept for someone who can struggle with counting to 10.

“His artistic style may kindly be described as ’scribbling’. I imagined my son making some incisive points as part of a focus group helping the nursery to improve its provision of sandpit toys and suggesting safer practices for all glue-related activities.”

He suggested that it should be scrapped.

“All I could see was the taxpayers’ meter running while all this nonsense went on,” Ames was quoted as saying.

The council said that 82 children’s drawings have been submitted for the childcare assessment and it maintained that the doodles were a voluntary exercise and costs are minimal.

A spokesman for the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead said: “Children aged three and four are highly capable of expressing valid, well-constructed views and opinions and they are able to explain, with clarity the subject of their drawings, even given that these may look like scribbles to the adult eye.”