The Complete Guide to Children's Drawings: Accessing Children‘s Emotional World through their Artwork
Parents often find themselves sitting next to their child while he’s drawing. The child is completely engrossed with the task: his tongue protrudes, his eyes are open wide and all his muscles are geared to a single objective – his masterpiece. He has been doing it from the moment he learned how to grab the drawing tool, and beyond the sensory experience involved this artwork is a reflection of his rich inner world. Therefore, no intervention in the drawing process can be considered minor; by necessity, it will have a profound impact on inner psychological processes.
There are ways of intervening other than drawing the castle for the child. Some parents start intervening already early in the scribbling stage, in order to help their children advance to the structured scribbling stage, in which the “doodles” become familiar geometric forms such as circle, triangle or square. However, when the children are not mature enough to move on to this stage, they will try imitating forms that are beyond their skill level or worse, give up and stop drawing.
Children will stop drawing for other reasons as well. For example, when they are not only forced to wear an apron but also have to listen to lectures about neatness and orderliness, or when they can only draw during certain hours of the day, the natural process is obstructed and they no longer express themselves freely.
The drawing surface and tools can also deter children. Some dislike drawing on large pages, while others have sensitive skin and avoid rough surfaces. Broken crayons are not necessarily a problem, because often it is easier for children to manipulate the smaller pieces. However, markers that no longer draw or pastel crayons that require strong pressure could tire out children and make them abandon drawing altogether.
It is also important to notice the supply of artistic materials available to the child. If there are plenty of coloring books at home, or if the kindergarten teachers spend considerable time with the children on coloring decorations (for holidays, or whenever the teacher draws a certain shape and invites the children to color it), the child could overemphasize the need to color within the boundaries. He will be busy with the figures and shapes available to him, at the expense of creating original drawings.
The drawing subject may also be significant in cases of refusal to draw. For example, when a child grows in a difficult family reality, he will tend to avoid family drawings or consistently omit one of the family members. In such a case, there is of course no point in asking about the omission.
Another example for intervention has to do with the adults’ attitude to the finished product. For example, when you ask the child, “What is this drawing? Why is the sky all red?”, or when you artificially identify familiar objects in what is clearly an unrecognizable scribble (“this looks like a flower, and this looks like a heart). Such an attitude communicates to the child that he has to draw recognizable elements that mimic reality. Next time he draws, he might “force” the drawing to be more realistic, and when asked about it, he will try to explain what he drew in a way that would please the adults around him.
Finally, when you talk with the kindergarten teacher you have to remember that the child is also listening. Saying things like, “She’s already four years old and still doesn’t draw houses!”, can make the child feel frustrated and stop drawing altogether.
Why, then, do adults intervene?
Some adults intervene because they fear their child is not drawing at an age-appropriate level, because of some developmental problem. By intervening, they “teach” the child to mimic age-appropriate patterns and abilities. Note, however, that just like copying from other children, it is easy to identify children who “fake” when they draw, using similar indicators used to identify fake handwritings. Namely, when children use elements that are out of sync with their inner development, their drawings will have a hesitant and inconsistent quality. Thus, studying an adult design and mimicking it could help the child produce a drawing that may look impressive, but a professional observer will easily identify it as fake.
Figure 1-28:Intervention drawing, with adult contours
Others intervene when they want to correct mistakes, to teach the child to draw “correctly”. In art, however, there is no such thing as “correct” or “incorrect”. The drawing is designed to mirror the child’s inner world and as such there are no correct or incorrect ways to go about it. Moreover, children who paint red skies are usually perfectly aware of their real color, but choose to draw them red for other reasons.
This attempt to “teach” the child how to draw correctly will fail in most cases. An interesting study (Cox 1996) on children at the “tadpole” stage (age 3) found that they become attached to their tadpole figure and are slow to abandon it even after observing college students drawing conventional human figures. In fact, the reason for the intervention – be it fear of developmental lag or any other reason – does not matter. The drawing mirrors the child’s inner world and “fixing” it will change nothing. Worse, as you have seen, it could disrupt the natural process. Note that when discussing adult interventions I do not refer to therapeutic interventions, as in occupational or art therapy.
When the girl who made the following drawing was 5½ years old, her mother contacted me in order to understand why she omitted the arms in her human figure drawings. At first, she told me that she had tried to intervene and check whether she was aware of all the body parts the arm is composed of (such as forearm, palm and fingers). When the child demonstrated her awareness, the mother continued to explain how important it was to actually draw all these body parts. Her daughter agreed with her, and yet, after several days, she returned to draw armless figures.
Figure 1-29:Armless human figure
My analysis of her drawings, including figure 1-29, indicated that she was a creative girl with a strong desire to control her environment. She made an effort to seem perfect on the outside, and her coloring was particularly meticulous. Despite her relatively developed emotional side, she preferred to set clear boundaries for herself when it came to sharing.
Nonetheless, she continued to draw armless figures because this is an age-appropriate phenomenon! Many children at her age draw complete figures and even dedicate considerable attention to drawing the fingers, and yet many others ignore the arms completely. This is highly typical of children aged 5–7 and there is no point persuading them to draw otherwise, mainly because they will do so in due time.
Naturally, most adult interventions are motivated by good intentions, without awareness of any negative effect they may have, such as refusal to draw. Many adults treat painting just like any other motor skill acquired with adult guidance, such as cooking, and are simply unaware of how important it is for the drawing child to experience and explore on his own.
Still, what can you do when the child refuses to draw?
First, you must make sure the reason for his refusal is not any physiological disorder (motor problem, visual disability, low muscle tone, learning disability, etc.). Once this possibility has been rejected, there are several courses of action available to you. If your child feels his drawings are not “good enough” because they are graphically inaccurate, take him to the museum and show him the wide range of “inaccurate” artworks. If your child asks you to draw for him, use your non-dominant hand to make a “bad” drawing on purpose. Another possibility is for you to draw with your eyes shut and ask your child to guide your hand.
Next, you can ask your child to turn your scribble into a recognizable drawing and then switch parts (Winnicott 1971). Finally, you can designate a special drawing notebook. This way, your child will have a sense of continuity from one drawing to the next and will be able to show his drawings around. In addition, the notebook will encourage him to make up a serial story around the drawings.
If you’ve tried several approaches and your child still refuses to draw, and assuming the possibility of physiological issues has been rejected, you should remember that drawing is a hobby and that there are plenty of other creative avenues still open to