Hi. Just me chiming in as an OT again. Drawing ability is not really an indicator of motor skill development, although motor skills can certainly influence visual motor integration and subsequently drawing skills.
Developmentally, in a typically developing child, I would expect a child to start drawing something that resembles a face with either arms and/or legs coming out of the face around the age of 3. By 4, most kids have learned to add a body to the head, with arms and legs coming out of the body. As they grow older, more details are added. Usually by 4 kids are able to draw at least something that resembles common objects or at least to NAME what they are drawing even if it doesn't actually resemble it (you know, when grandparents say "Oh, what a lovely picture you made! What is it, dear?!")
But, as far as looking at visual motor integration, I would expect a three year old to be able to produce vertical and horizontal lines, circular shapes and to stay on the page while scribbling. More complex shapes like a cross, diagonal lines, "X" and a square aren't expected until the fourth year.
Now, as far as GT kids, I personally think that there is a bit of anynchronous development that should be expected. I heard Sue Jackson talk about raising gifted kids and she referred to *at least* 24 planes of development that occur in human beings. All these different areas that are developing and changing simultaneously in us. How could every area possibly develop at the same rate? And what if one or two or three are really moving along at a fast pace? Doesn't it make sense that maybe the "energy" needed for that other area to develop isn't available right now?
When my older kids were little the doctor told me not to worry about language skills as my little guy was already walking at 9 months. The way he explained it then was to say relax, all your son's energy resources are going into gross motor skills right now. Pretty soon that will be sort of "topped out" and he'll move his energy to talking. In the absence of any disorder, this makes sense.
FWIW, my GT 6 y/o drew faces with arms until he was 5 years old. Freaked me out. I was SOOOOO worried about his development. But pretty soon he started drawing bodies and now is pretty much on target for a 6 year old. His drawing is NOT at the same level as his cognitive development. It's just average, which is fine. But he was reading at 3 y 11 months. So I guess his energy was going elsewhere!
Hope that helps to calm your nerves. Oh, and you might also want to find out if he is youngest in the class or how much difference between him and the kids you are seeing. Just 6 months of age makes a big difference in skills like drawing at the age of 2-4.
Here is an interesting site about the development of drawing skills in kids:
http://www.learningdesign.com/Portfolio/DrawDev/kiddrawing.html
