The Complete Guide to Children's Drawings: Accessing Children‘s Emotional World through their Artwork
versus Girls
Society tends to treat boys and girls differently. One study (Huston 1983), for example, explored adult attitudes towards infants at the age when their sex is hard to distinguish. It was found that when the infant wore blue cloths, adults used to hold it high and throw it in the air. When it wore pink, however, they treated it gently, held it close to their chest and avoided rough play.
This is just one of many examples proving the social influence that molds boys and girls into gendered roles. On the other hand, many believe that gender identity is primarily innate. For instance, little boys independently choose “boyish” games (cars, superheroes), even when they have “girlish” toys (dolls, kitchen) at easy reach, and vice versa (Hoffman, 1964).
Figure 1-30:Typical painting by a girl
Just like playing with dolls, drawing also gives children the opportunity to create an imaginary world and draw themselves as superheroes or delicate princesses. Everything is possible on the drawing page and children relish this absolute freedom. Beyond themes that are popular among all children regardless of gender, such as family or holiday drawings, most boys tend to draw superheroes combined with various angular shapes, while girls prefer princesses combined with hearts, flowers, jewelry and similar details.
Figure 1-31:Monster drawing as a normative tendency
Unless there are indications to the contrary, drawings of monsters and violent heroes are considered normative among boys, and are usually not considered as evidence of any internal distress or anxiety experienced by the child. Sometimes they lead to precisely the opposite conclusion: the child who draws monsters is socially integrated and understands the social codes of the community, and accordingly has interests that are shared with his peers.
The drawing subject can thus be misleading and even cause unnecessary concern among adults. It is therefore important to get to know the children’s world and understand their language.
In order to identify signs of distress, it is more important to attend less to the subject per se and more to graphic indicators in the drawing, such as the degree of pressure applied on the drawing tool, line quality and color combinations.
A classic social learning study (Bandura 1971) showed that girls usually allow themselves to express negative emotions only when certain this is socially acceptable. Also when drawing, girls tend to attach greater importance to the final product and the way it is received. If the girl is preoccupied with her looks in real life, the figures in her drawing will be rendered accordingly: each figure will have jewelry, hair accessories, makeup and well-drawn eyebrows and lashes. To arrive at such carefully detailed results, they tend to plan their drawings more carefully than boys, color them gently and execute the entire composition with great accuracy. They also tend to draw “acceptable” subjects and avoid subjects that are controversial in terms of gender identity.
Importantly, girls in therapy will use drawings as a therapeutic tool to externalize anger and frustrations, but will tend to do it in a supportive environment. In such an environment, they are less preoccupied with how the final product looks.
Another classic study explored gender differences in graphic expression (Hesse 1978). This study found that significantly, boys’ line style and shape design tends to be characterized by dynamism and momentum, while girls prefer clearly defined lines combined with structured static forms. Girls’ subjects are clearer and more understandable, and they are careful to plan their composition and draw a baseline (the ground line), while boys the same age drew a baseline in only half the cases. In terms of coloring, girls tend to use a greater variety, while boys clearly prefer using 1–3 colors out of the entire pack.
Another significant different between the sexes has to do with brain structure (Restak 1982). Girls’ fine motor skills area is larger and better developed than boys’ and this is perhaps why their drawings are considered “nicer”, as well as their handwriting later on. They tend to draw small and carefully rendered figures. This does not mean that boys develop more slowly, but simply that the developmental trajectory used to judge their drawings is different than that of girls. Another difference that may have to do with brain structure is that girls seem to be better in reading facial expressions. This contributes to their developing social skills and also explains their preference to draw human figures and depict the relationships between them.
Indeed, one of the first studies in this area (Goodenough 1926) found significant gender differences in human figure drawings. Boys tend to draw figures in profile with long, dominant limbs, while girls draw small palms and feet. Goodenough attributed these differences to society’s tendency to emphasize girls’ appearance and encourage boys to be more physically active, a tendency that has changed considerably since her studies.
Physiological differences and differential tendencies to have certain disabilities are central to assessing gender differences in drawings. For example, the dominance of their right hemisphere, combined with other physiological factors, mean that learning disabilities are more common among boys. Thus, many cases of refusal to draw or difficulties in drawing and writing are later discovered to be related to dysgraphia or another disability. Particularly in the disabilities area, however, it is very important to avoid jumping into conclusions and test the child’s skills using other diagnostic methods, in addition to drawings.
Figure 1-32:A typically “boyish” drawing
This right hemispheric dominance also means that boys have better spatial perception. They study mazes and love drawing maps and diagrams. They also love drawing vehicles such as airplanes, tanks and cars. The following drawing by a 12½ year-old is a typically “boyish” drawing that emphasizes structure and space, as well as demonstrating considerable effort to reach the required level of accuracy.
To conclude, the objective in interpreting boys’ versus girls’ drawings is not to arrive at generalized conclusions supporting statistical findings about gender differences, but to identify differences that simply mean that the child in question is a typical boy or girl. Children of both genders have always experimented with gender atypical behaviors, a phenomenon that seems to be more acceptable nowadays. When interpreting children’s drawings, you must be keenly aware of such social developments.
Copying
A group of children is seated around the table and everyone is busy drawing. A pair of inquisitive eyes checks neighboring drawings and sees that one girl drew a sun, while one boy drew a red car. The eyes return to their own page and want to draw like that as well. When our children return from kindergarten with a stack of drawings held in their little hands, how can we know which are really their own? Did somebody help them out? Did they copy from others?
Copying is prevalent since early age. Learning by observation is the basic way of acquiring language, for example, and indeed adults also tend to imitate others’ speak, clothing, style and even opinions and ideologies. Given these universal truths, you need to ask, what made the child copy? Is the final product exactly identical to the source or has it been adjusted in some way? Finally, did copying help the child improve his drawing skills and enable him to continue on his own, at a higher level?
Copying has many positive aspects. First, it means the child is aware of his environment. He is curious to learn from older and more experienced children – by studying their behavior he reaches conclusions that are relevant to his future behavior. Second, copying introduces the child to peer society – now he’s just like all the boys (girls): everyone draws spaceships (mermaids) and now he does as well. Copying is often a way of belonging and advancing socially. Clearly, the very act of observing other children’s behavior, regardless of whether it leads to copying, promotes the child as it exposes him to diverse approaches to the same issue and thus sharpens his social perception.