Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Part I The bodily self
- Part II The bodies of others
- 5 Developing expertise in human body perception
- 6 Children’s representations of the human figure in their drawings
- 7 Understanding of human motion, form and levels of meaning
- 8 How infants detect information in biological motion
- 9 The integration of body representations and other inferential systems in infancy
- Commentary on Part II Yet another approach to development of body representations
- Part III Bodily correspondences
- Index
- References
6 - Children’s representations of the human figure in their drawings
from Part II - The bodies of others
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 October 2011
By
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Part I The bodily self
- Part II The bodies of others
- 5 Developing expertise in human body perception
- 6 Children’s representations of the human figure in their drawings
- 7 Understanding of human motion, form and levels of meaning
- 8 How infants detect information in biological motion
- 9 The integration of body representations and other inferential systems in infancy
- Commentary on Part II Yet another approach to development of body representations
- Part III Bodily correspondences
- Index
- References
Summary
One of the first recognisable things that children draw is the human figure and it remains a popular topic throughout their school years. It is usually composed of a number of parts, drawn in sequence and fitted together in a particular spatial way. Typically, the head is drawn first and consists of a contour, which encloses the facial features. The body is drawn below the head. The legs are often, but not always, added next and then the arms last. Hair, hands and feet, and other embellishments may also be included. Older drawers already know how to draw such a figure, even though it may not be very sophisticated and may turn out to be rather sketchy and more like a cartoon. Very young children, however, have to learn how to make this drawing and it is by no means a simple process. They have to decide which components to include, remember these key body parts, decide which order to draw them in, know where to locate each one on the figure, choose the appropriate kind of line or shape for each part and know how to fit them together. And of course they need adequate visuo-motor skills and cognitive abilities to be able to bring all this about.
In this chapter I will review the research on children’s developing ability to represent the human figure in their drawings and the extent to which this reflects their knowledge of the human body. I will discuss the various influences on its development, including the culture that children grow up in as well as their own individual characteristics and experiences. Understanding this development and the influences on it is important for those professionals working in an educational or therapeutic context who use children’s human figure drawings, as without such knowledge they may underestimate children’s ability and misinterpret their emotional state. A fuller account of some of the data, claims and arguments referred to in this chapter can be found in Cox, 2005.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Early Development of Body Representations , pp. 101 - 121Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011
References
2003
1989
1974 Art and Visual Perception: A Psychology of the Creative Eye. The New VersionBerkeley, CAUniversity of California Press
2003
1983 Relationship between preschool children’s ability to name body parts and their ability to construct a manPerceptual and Motor Skills 57 19Google Scholar
1999 Emotional indicators in children’s human figure drawingsEuropean Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 8 86Google Scholar
1994 The drawings of children and young people with Down’s syndrome: a case of delay or difference?British Journal of Educational Psychology 64 441Google Scholar
1992 Children’s DrawingsHarmondsworth, UKPenguin
1993 Children’s Drawings of the Human FigureHove, UKLawrence Erlbaum
1997 Drawings of People by the Under-5sLondonFalmer Press
1998 Drawings of people by Australian Aboriginal children: The intermixing of cultural stylesJournal of Art and Design Education 17 71Google Scholar
2005 The Pictorial World of the ChildCambridge, UKCambridge University Press
1989
2000 Severely disturbed children’s human figure drawings: Are they unusual or just poor drawings?European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 9 301Google Scholar
1996 The human figure drawings of normal children and those with mild learning difficultiesEducational Psychology 16 433Google Scholar
1989 The human figure drawings of normal children and those with severe learning difficultiesBritish Journal of Developmental Psychology 7 333Google Scholar
1998 The young child’s pictorial representation of the human figureInternational Journal of Early Years Education 6 31Google Scholar
1998 The human figure drawings of children with Down’s syndromeBritish Journal of Developmental Psychology 16 133Google Scholar
1994 Children’s depictions of different views of the human figureEducational Psychology 14 427Google Scholar
1986 Young children’s human figure drawing: Cross-sectional and longitudinal studiesEducational Psychology 6 353Google Scholar
2001 Children’s human figure drawings in the UK and Japan: The effects of age, sex and cultureBritish Journal of Developmental Psychology 19 275Google Scholar
1992 Twisted perspective in young children’s drawingsBritish Journal of Developmental Psychology 10 35Google Scholar
1994 Visual realism in the drawings of autistic, Down’s syndrome and normal childrenBritish Journal of Developmental Psychology 12 235Google Scholar
1931 The Psychology of Children’s DrawingsLondonRoutledge and Kegan Paul
1991 An exploratory study of drawings by bereaved childrenBritish Journal of Clinical Psychology 30 373Google Scholar
1981 Tallensi children’s drawingsUniversals of Human Thought: Some African EvidenceCambridge, UKCambridge University Press
1980 Strategies of Representation in Young Children: Analysis of Spatial Skills and Drawing ProcessesLondonAcademic Press
1967 Differences in negro and white drawings: a cultural interpretationPerceptual and Motor Skills 24 667Google Scholar
1925 The Mental Growth of the Preschool ChildNew YorkMacmillan
1974 Young Children’s Sculpture and DrawingCambridge, MAHarvard University Press
1981 Representation and reality: The origins and determinants of young children’s drawingsReview of Research in Visual Art Education 14 36Google Scholar
1992 The Child’s Creation of a Pictorial WorldBerkeley, CAUniversity of California Press
2002 Child Art in ContextWashington, DCAmerican Psychological Association
1926 Measurement of Intelligence by DrawingsNew YorkHarcourt, Brace and World
1977 Children’s DrawingLondonFontana/Open Books
1963 Children’s Drawings as Measures of Intellectual Maturity: A Revision and Extension of the Goodenough Draw-a-Man TestNew YorkHarcourt, Brace and World
1987 Genitalia in children’s drawings: An association with sexual abusePediatrics 79 129Google Scholar
1984 Human figure drawing in adults: An update of the empirical evidence, 1967–1982Canadian Psychology 25 269Google Scholar
1990 Constraints on representational change: Evidence from children’s drawingCognition 34 1Google Scholar
1969 Analysing Children’s ArtPalo Alto, CAMayfield
1968 Psychological Evaluation of Children’s Human Figure DrawingsNew York; LondonGrune and Stratton
2001 Spatial representation in the drawings of children with Down’s syndrome and its relationship to language and motor development: A preliminary investigationBritish Journal of Developmental Psychology 19 453Google Scholar
2001 Children’s DrawingsLondonFree Association Books
1949 Personality Projection in the Drawings of the Human FigureSpringfield, ILC. C. Thomas
1906 First Steps in Mental GrowthNew YorkMacmillan
1996 Human figure drawings by schooled and unschooled children in Papua New GuineaChild Development 67 2,743Google Scholar
1984 Children drawing: Are young children really scribbling?Child Development and Care 18 1Google Scholar
1975 Visual experience or translation of rules? Drawing the human figure by blind and sighted childrenPerception 4 363Google Scholar
1973 Walbiri Iconography: Graphic Representation and Cultural Symbolism in a Central Australian SocietyIthaca, NYCornell University Press
1988 Draw a Person: a quantitative scoring systemPsychological Corporation
1932 Some drawings of men and women made by children of certain non-European racesJournal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 62 127Google Scholar
1984 Interpretation of studies of ethnic identity: Draw-a-person as a measure of ethnic identityPerceptual and Motor Skills 59 835Google Scholar
1956 The Child’s Conception of SpaceLondonRoutledge and Kegan Paul
1913 Le Langage Graphique de l’EnfantParisMisch and Thron
1904 De oorspronkelijke “Ventjes” der Antwerpsch schoolkindernPaedologisch Jaarboek 5 1Google Scholar
1992 Drawing to differentiate: Flexibility in young children’s human figure drawingsBritish Journal of Developmental Psychology 10 25Google Scholar
1999 The development of cognitive flexibility: Evidence from children’s drawingsHuman Development 42 300Google Scholar
1968 Empirical evaluations of human figure drawings: 1957–1966Psychological Bulletin 70 20Google Scholar
1988 Effects of order of drawing head and trunk on their relative sizes in children’s human figure drawingsBritish Journal of Developmental Psychology 6 191Google Scholar
1984 Drawing and CognitionCambridge, UKCambridge University Press
1978 Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological ProcessesCambridge, MAHarvard University Press
1990 Children’s picturesUnderstanding ChildrenOxford, UKBasil Blackwell
1985 Drawing systems revisited: The role of denotation systems in children’s figure drawingsVisual Order: The Nature and Development of Pictorial RepresentationCambridge, UKCambridge University Press
1987 Marr and pictures: An information processing account of children’s drawingsArchives de Psychologie 55 105Google Scholar
1985 The artistic tower of Babel: Inextricable links between culture and graphic developmentVisual Arts Research 11 90Google Scholar
2000 Empire of signs revisited: Children’s manga and the changing face of JapanThe Cultural Context: Comparative Studies of Art Education and Children’s DrawingsStockholm University Press
1984 Children’s drawings in Egypt: Cultural style acquisition as graphic developmentVisual Arts Research 10 13Google Scholar
1997 Representational activity during mother–child interaction: The scribbling stage of drawingBritish Journal of Developmental Psychology 15 355Google Scholar