Child Development - Lecture Six Flashcards
The Uses and Abuses of Children's Drawings
The Development of Children’s Drawling Ability - Scribbling Stage
2 to 3-years-old (sometimes before this)
Not representative - it isn’t a drawing of specific thing
The Development of Children’s Drawling Ability - Pre-schematic Stage
First attempts at human figure drawings 3-4 years
Tadpole Drawings
Circle/ellipse representing head
2 (or 4) protruding lines representing limbs
The Development of Children’s Drawling Ability - Schematic Stage
5-6 years Child develop a “schema” Separate Trunk from Head Initially omit or misplace arms Later on... Substance added to limbs Arms correctly placed Detail (clothing, glasses, ears, etc.) Emergence of neck representation (last)
The Development of Children’s Drawling Ability - Realistic Stage
From around 9 years
Marks end of art as a spontaneous activity
More detail and expressions
The Development of Children’s Drawling Ability - Period of Indecision
Art is something to be done or left alone
The Clinical Value of Children’s Drawings - Projectile Measures
Intelligence
Psychological Wellbeing
Sexual Abuse
Psychological Wellbeing
Drawing tests which show no difference between children
Sexual Abuse
Difficulties in diagnosing sexual abuse in children led to clinicians seeking a non-verbal measure of abuse, studies suggest that drawings may differ according to abuse history but no consistent patterns have yet been found
The Clinical Value of Children’s Drawings - Verbal Communication Aid
Helping children to talk about events they have experienced where the content of the drawings are not relevant
Butler, Gross and Hayne’s (1995) study
Children aged 5- and 6-years old visited the Fire Station and interviewed one day later, half of the children recall through drawing and telling and the other half just telling. The children were asked questions into different way, free recall and directed recall. Finding showed that the draw and tell group reported twice as much information in the direct recall phase than the tell group but no differences between groups in the free recall phase
The beneficial effect of drawing extends to
Emotionally laden events
Children as young as 3 years and as old as 12 years
Delays of up to a year
Real clinical settings
Why might drawing work?
Increases the length of the interview Reduces social barriers Children provide their own retrieval cues Reinstates mental context Affects the interviewer’s behaviour
Increases the length of the interview
Children more likely to say more and stay for longer and may remember more in the time
Reduces social barriers
Ignore person and focus on explaining their drawing
Reduces social barriers
Children provide their own retrieval cues
Act drawing is helping them remember things
