Children's Drawings and Intelligence

[Charla]

I'm having a hard time finding anything in Google, which I'm sure just means I'm not using the right keywords :giggle:

When I was growing up, Mom told me about an "experiment" in psych class in college where they had a child draw a person, and then the class looked at the detail. Supposedly the more detail, the more intelligent, but I can't find any more specifics than that. Anyone know of anything on that (free, online)??

Here's why. Bekah drew this picture of Hudson a few minutes ago. She did it completely unassisted; we didn't even know she was drawing.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y62/berekah_44/bekah-drawing.jpg

Besides the obvious, she gave him fingers and hair and a neck. No torso, but a neck! (and apparently after this picture she added feet to the bottom of his neck :giggle:)

So what's it mean, other than I'm proud of her? :rotfl:

[marianneh]

the little bit that I can remember right now, off-hand (my mom's a kindergarten teacher) the thing that stood out to me, is that she used ALL the space, that's a biggie. I'll see what I can find for you :) how old is she, Charla?

[Charla]

She'll be 3 in 3 weeks.
That's cool; I hadn't heard that!

[donnawells]

Very cute! And she looks quite pleased with herself. Hudson looks kind of like a sheep to me. :rotfl:

[Charla]

:holysheep:

Yeah, he does :giggle:
She was very proud of herself. She showed both DH and I separately, telling us all the things she'd drawn. It was so sweet!

[laurabobaura]

wow! :) looks great! i have a may07 'baby' and was really impressed to see him 'writing letters' that looked like really small jagged lines. i can upload if you're interested in seeing- i've been meaning to research a bit on that as well :)

[jacinda]

It looks like her view of Hudson from birds eye view, which is how I guess she DOES see him. Clever girl. My 3 year old isn't drawing anything nearly so clear yet.

[marianneh]

It looks like her view of Hudson from birds eye view, which is how I guess she DOES see him. Clever girl. My 3 year old isn't drawing anything nearly so clear yet. lol! neither does mine hun :giggle:

[Charla]

Laura, she's doing that, too. It's so cute! She likes to write "grocery lists" with squiggles for each word. My SIL, who got her master's in reading education, was impressed that she remembers which line corresponds with which word she "wrote." I'd love to see your picture :D
:giggle: Good point, Jacinda! I don't know I'd give her that much credit, but that's how it ended up looking :D

[laurabobaura]

lol @ the grocery list :) Aidan says that he's writing our names... it just surprised me, since he normally draws really large circle scribbles- this was definitely more like words :)

http://i49.tinypic.com/uos9t.jpg

[sinead]

Katie is 3 (Nov '06) and can hardly even draw a circle. She can climb something fierce, though! lol Maggie was (and is) my drawing pro. Katie just isn't still long enough to even think too hard about it.

[Charla]

Jasmine did absolutely no drawing at this age either. It's so much just who they are!
Laura, he really does look like he's drawing "words." That's fantastic!!

[laurabobaura]

sinead- my older is more like that...he's just now interested in coloring pictures, etc. :)

[marianneh]

isn't it interesting how they differ? mine came to the study earlier this afternoon, I have this little notepad that I make my lists on (mostly scrapping stuff) so he started making a list too! :) too funny, I asked, what you're drawing? he says, nope, not drawing, writing. I said, oh, and what are you writing, he quips, a list of sweeties!!!!! :giggle:

[SunshineTK]

I'm intrigued!

This isn't exactly what you're looking for, but interesting nonetheless:

http://www.learningdesign.com/Portfolio/DrawDev/kiddrawing.html

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1272/is_2679_130/ai_81110765/

[melwilson]

I think that Hudson has fingers and hair is important, too. It has something to do with them noticing/realizing the details they see. There is a writing program for preschoolers that has the kids draw a picture of a person. Then you go through a song with them about body parts and actually make a body out of these block pieces. When you have them redraw the person again, it will be amazing more detailed. Rough description, I know, but that's the process in a nutshell. Maybe you could give her some blocks or legos or something to 'build' Hudson and see what she does. When you have to actually make it, you have to put in more detail or it just doesn't physically work. I don't know...

I know my son made his very first flip book when he was about 3 or 4. He took some post it notes and drew a rabbit jumping in a hole...pretty cool. He said he saw someone draw one on tv. He was all about drawing for a while, and now at almost 9, doesn't seem to be that interested anymore. I think I have his C3PO drawing on his blog. He must've done that when he was in Kindergarten maybe or right before...that was the Star Wars phase. www.gordywilson.com (http://www.gordywilson.com)

*a note about the blog...we move alot and it's hard to keep in touch with everyone, so I set up a blog for each of my kiddos and bought a domain in their name. They will always have it. I upkeep it for now and eventually they will each take it over (with supervision, of course!)

[erica zane]

hehe, i thought it was a sheep at first too...but either way i'm impressed! my may '07 daughter just scribbles - but boy can she get into mischief in no time flat! she is my trouble maker...my oldest son was the artist at that age & still is at 8...my 2nd son is somewhere in the middle, lol.

[Jane_4SBD]

From my experience I dont think the more details you can draw in a picture have any bearing on how smart you are. Here's why...my 3rd son is a very detailed drawer. When he was in kindergarten his teacher was amazed that he drew a picture of the family sitting around the dinner table eating pizza. I will have to see if I can find it, but there is ALOT of detail in it, right down to steam coming off the pizza. He is very smart, WAY to smart for his age, people are amazed at the stuff he knows, now on the other hand I have one daycare child that is also SUPER smart (I mean he is a little genius!) & he just turned 3. But he doesn't like to draw pictures at all, he will try to make shapes & letters but to get him to draw a person or house, forget it! They are both intelligent kids but one likes to draw & the other doesn't so I dont think you can say that more detail means more intelligence. I just dont see it!!

[SylviaB]

I don't see a mandatory relationship between intelligence and detailed drawings either - but that's also only based on my own expierence: I am not able to draw an even circle or just a straight line to this day!!!!

Needless to say I was one of the worst pupils in all arts classes at school and my drawings as a child were... well... we should better not speak about that *lol*

My intelligence quotient is 153.

So... I don't know.. maybe somethings wrong with me *lol*.. but as said before.. I cannot see a mandatory relationship.

[gracesmum]

I am a Primary Teacher of 14 years and have been taught at University that drawing is representational and can reflect child developmental stages (not intelligence per se).

These two sites may be of interest:
http://www.users.totalise.co.uk/~kbroom/Lectures/children.htm
http://www.learningdesign.com/Portfolio/DrawDev/kiddrawing.html

PS. Great picture BTW!