Children’s Drawings, 1934 – Ursula Wise discusses what these might and might not indicate about a child.

April 4, 1934 in Nursery World

Children’s Drawings

“N. G. M.” writes: “ I wonder if you would be so kind as to give me your criticism of the enclosed drawing? F. is two years three months. He was in the nursery alone with his pencil and paper, and when I arrived, said, “Look Nan, train smoke chimney wheels.” I feel it is rather good work, but one is very apt to feel that one’s charges are above the average. I would also like to say, as a result of your helpful advice, I have a wonderful, happy, independent charge."

I am glad to have seen this drawing, and to have had the opportunity of asking the Editor to reproduce it for the interest of other readers. It is quite remarkably good for the age of the child – at least a year or fifteen months ahead of the average achievement for his age. A great many studies have been made in recent years of the levels of ability shown in the drawings of children of successive ages. Most of these comparative studies have been made of drawings of a man or a house, and there are now definitely recognised stages of development in these, according to age. We have no such clear knowledge of ability in drawing engines such as this; but by comparing what the average three year old can do in the way of drawing a man, and comparing the many drawings of engines by young children, which I have myself collected, I can certainly say that this drawing is at least a year in advance, and probably 15-16 months.

            The most interesting point about the drawings of little children is that in the early years they are no index of artistic ability, as they become later on in life, but they are fairly reliable measures of the child’s intelligence. Up to, at any rate, eight or nine years, there is a definite relation between the child’s drawings and his gifts of seeing and understanding in general. After that, it is more a matter of the special abilities that enter into artistic achievement as such. Those who are interested in the meaning of young children’s drawings from the point of view of their intelligence would find a book by Florence Goodenough, The Measurement of Intelligence by Drawings (World Book Co.), very interesting. There is a chapter on the same subject in Burt’s Mental and Scholastic Tests, with sample drawings at the different age levels.

            Most children of the under three are content with a mere scribble to represent a man – or any other object. Then they often begin to represent some vague sort of man-like shape with the various parts – eyes, ears, arms, legs, etc., shown without any proper connection – more like a list of parts than a whole person. And later comes the stage when both eyes are shown, even if the head is drawn in profile. The child, at that stage, draws what he knows is there, rather than what he actually sees from any given angle. Only much later is he able to use his eyes for a momentary vision for its own sake, in the way of the artist.