Children's Drawings Lecture Notes 2024 PDF

8/17/24 Lecture 6: Children’s Drawings Professor Rachel Zajac office: 413 William James Building phone: 479 3988 email: rache...

8/17/24 Lecture 6: Children’s Drawings Professor Rachel Zajac office: 413 William James Building phone: 479 3988 email: [email protected] 1 2 The Development of Children's Drawings 3 4 Drawing Development 1. Scribbling Stage 2-3 years Not representative 5 6 1  8/17/24 7 8 Drawing Development 2. Preschematic Stage First attempts at human figure drawings 3-4 years Tadpole Drawings Circle/ellipse representing head 2 (or 4) protruding lines representing limbs 9 10 11 12 2  8/17/24 13 14 Drawing Development 3. Schematic Stage 5-6 years Children develop a “schema” Separate trunk from head Initially omit or misplace arms 15 16 Drawing Development Later in the Schematic Stage… Substance added to limbs Arms correctly placed Detail (clothing, glasses, ears, etc.) Emergence of neck representation (last) 17 18 3  8/17/24 19 20 21 22 23 24 4  8/17/24 Drawing Development 4. Realistic Stage From around 9 years Marks end of art as a spontaneous activity More detail Varying expressions Better use of space Use profile 25 26 Drawing Development 5. Period of Indecision Art is something to be done or left alone “Realism” 27 28 Clinical Value of Children's Drawings: 1. Projective Measures 29 30 5  8/17/24 31 32 33 34 Intelligence Florence Goodenough (1920s) 35 36 6  8/17/24 Intelligence Intelligence Florence Goodenough (1920s) Florence Goodenough (1920s) Draw-a-Person Test (self, mother, father) Draw-a-Person Test (self, mother, father) One of the top 10 tests used by US Psychologists 37 38 Intelligence High score on IQ test Florence Goodenough (1920s) Draw-a-Person Test (self, mother, father) Average score on IQ test One of the top 10 tests used by US Psychologists Research suggests that the test can differentiate between groups, but isn’t good Low score on IQ test at identifying individual cases needing special help Willcock, Imuta, & Hayne, 2011 39 40 Intelligence Nadia’s drawings 41 42 7  8/17/24 43 44 Psychological Wellbeing Draw-a-Family Test, Kinetic Family Drawings, House-Tree-Person Test Interpreted in the context of psychoanalytic therapy 45 46 47 48 8  8/17/24 Psychological Wellbeing Sexual Abuse Draw-a-Family Test, Kinetic Family Drawings, Difficulties in diagnosing sexual abuse in House-Tree-Person Test children led to clinicians seeking a non- verbal measure of abuse Interpreted in the context of psychoanalytic therapy Suggestions that drawings may differ according to abuse history (e.g., sexual No studies have shown ability of raters to content, shading) differentiate between drawings of well- adjusted children and those who are not well-adjusted 49 50 51 52 53 54 9  8/17/24 Sexual Abuse Difficulties in diagnosing sexual abuse in children led to clinicians seeking a non- verbal measure of abuse Suggestions that drawings may differ according to abuse history (e.g., sexual content, shading) Researchers have yet to find a consistent pattern of graphic indicators that can distinguish the drawings of abused children from those of their non-abused counterparts 55 56 57 58 Verbal Communication Aid Helping children to talk about the past Clinical Value of Children's Drawings: 2. Verbal Communication Aid 59 60 10  8/17/24 Verbal Communication Aid Butler, Gross, & Hayne (1995) Helping children to talk about the past 5- and 6-year-old children Content of drawing not relevant Visited Fire Station Historically used in clinical settings, despite an Interviewed 1 day later absence of empirical evidence Research questions: Two manipulated variables Does drawing help children to talk about the 1. Question Type: Tell (half of the sample) past? Draw (and tell) (other half If so, are accounts elicited in this way still accurate? of the sample) 61 62 Butler, Gross, & Hayne (1995) Butler, Gross, & Hayne (1995) 5- and 6-year-old children 5- and 6-year-old children Visited Fire Station Visited Fire Station Interviewed 1 day later Interviewed 1 day later Two manipulated variables Two manipulated variables 2. Question Type: Free Recall (all children) Measured variables: Directed Recall (all 1. Amount recalled children) 2. Errors in recall 63 64 Butler, Gross, & Hayne (1995) Butler, Gross, & Hayne (1995) à Children in the “Draw and Tell” group reported twice as much information in the Direct Recall phase than the “Tell” children à No differences between groups in the Free Recall phase à Information reported by the Draw and Tell group was just as accurate as information reported by the Tell group. 65 66 11  8/17/24 More Recent Findings… More Recent Findings… The beneficial effect of drawings extends to: The beneficial effect of drawings extends to: emotionally laden events (Gross & Hayne, 1998; emotionally laden events (Gross & Hayne, 1998; Patterson & Hayne, 2011) Patterson & Hayne, 2011) children as young as three years old and as old as twelve years (Gross & Hayne, 1998; Patterson & Hayne, 2011) 67 68 More Recent Findings… The beneficial effect of drawings extends to: emotionally laden events (Gross & Hayne, 1998; Patterson & Hayne, 2011) children as young as three years old and as old as twelve years (Gross & Hayne, 1998; Patterson & Hayne, 2011) delays of up to one year (Gross & Hayne, 1999) real clinical settings (Drucker et al. 1997) 69 70 Why Might Drawing Work? Increases the length of the interview Reduction of social barriers Children provide their own retrieval cues Butler, Gross, & Hayne (1995) 71 72 12  8/17/24 Why Might Drawing Work? Increases the length of the interview Reduces social barriers Allows children to provide their own retrieval cues Reinstates mental context Affects the interviewer’s behaviour 73 13