The Complete Guide to Children's Drawings: Accessing Children‘s Emotional World through their Artwork. Michal Wimmer
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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 your child.
Boys 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’ СКАЧАТЬ