Photo credits: Ana Fukase (CC License)

Drawing plays a crucial role in the development of children. They move from scribbling at the age of two, to the first conscious creation when they’re three years old, and then on to producing a schema at six whereby objects are placed in relation to one another.

I would have thought that sensory experience plays a crucial role in all of this. Feeling the paper, its texture – and smelling (or tasting!) the paint while watching all the colours blend and shine. It’s captivating.

As such the cognitive stimulation is very rich, which may at least partially explain the remarkably fast development from simple lines toward complex symbolism over the course of just a few years.

And whether it’s painting on paper, making shapes in the sand on the beach, or drawing with chalk on pavements – the multi-sensory experience is there.

Because the multi-sensory creation process goes back to our earliest developmental stages, we might be able to relate to it so easily and so well as adults. It’s part of our earliest memories and goes back to the earliest skills we learnt.

I think this is one of the reasons why it feels so natural – and why it’s so enjoyable – to make mindmaps on paper.

It provides more cognitive stimulation than, say, a smart phone which reduces our world to a sterile and odorless screen barely the size of a coaster. This is limiting, whereas creation should be about expansion and freedom and discovery and roaming.

There’s something meditative about making a mindmap with a fountain pen, seeing the ink flow and watching it dry as we pause to gather our thoughts from time to time. Paper doesn’t crash. Paper is quiet, paper is patient. Paper once was a mighty tree that reached out to the sky, firmly rooted in the soil.

THAT is the magic of writing and drawing on paper.

Part of us hasn’t forgotten how much we enjoyed that when we were very young.

It is my preferred way of working, still.

Next post
My next post will address the question: Why make digital mindmaps?

Related posts (most recent first):

• What are the uses of mindmaps? (13 April 2012)
• How to make a mindmap? (Part 3 of 3; 11 April 2012)
• How to make a mindmap? (Part 2 of 3; 11 April 2012)
• How to make a mindmap? (Part 1 of 3; 11 April 2012)
• What are the benefits of mindmapping? (5 April 2012)
• What is mind mapping? (4 April 2012)
• Possible mind-mapping topics (29 March 2012)
• Pick of the week: mind mapping (26 March 2012)