Do you think children's drawings can give one an insight into things that might be happening in their lives that you might not know about otherwise?
I don’t remember where I learned about this, maybe at teacher’s school, but we were taught how to examine pictures that children draw to get an idea of how things are in their life. For example, if a child draws a picture of him-or-herself with no mouth or no eyes, that’s a concern that something is going on that they aren’t allowed to talk about, or that they see things they don’t want to see or aren’t supposed to see.
I recently saw a picture a kid drew that was very dark and angry looking, and the mouth was sewn shut. It looked discombobulated, like a van Gogh. He had one eye on his face and the other eye was in his navel area. He had used his medium of choice, and that was a pencil. Many confused lines, but overall kind of interesting.
Also, if you ask a child to draw a picture of his or her family, where the child puts him or herself in relation to other family members is telling too. If a child puts him or herself out side of the group, that’s a little bit concerning.
What other things could be of concern?
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I don’t know. I would be hesitant to be too confident in our interpretations of children’s drawings, however.
I love viewing kids’ art. There are the normal developmental steps, such as drawing a person as a head with legs coming off it. I wouldn’t be tempted to see this as a sign that a child sees himself as having no body.
But I do love seeing what features are important enough to draw – especially when they are very young and haven’t started drawing culturally-appropriate symbols, such as a tree = a trunk and a cloud like top, or a house = box with triangle on top. When they are younger, it seems that there is greater expression of what they may be aware of. Someone might draw a face with huge eyes or an absurd mouth and no nose. Or maybe the house is simply a roof and a door. In that way, I can’t help buy see this as a glimpse into how they see the world.
But I’m also cautious because interpretation is my activity and is informed by concepts that I bring.
OK, that was funny @SecondHandStoke! “First of all, I don’t even know what this is. If it’s supposed to be a dog, then it’s the shittiest dog I’ve ever seen. F.” LOL!
I have heard of this , but think you have to be extremely well trained in it to know for certain, because other than that some children have an extreme imagination and could be nothing more than that.
My daughter once brought home a drawing of herself that I kept for many years. In the center, really big, was a picture of her with her mouth wide open like she was screaming. Then in the bottom corner was a much smaller picture of her smiling. In many ways, that described her. Often unhappy, sometimes happy.
They can give some clues, sure.
When my teenager was in middle school and I had recently gotten married, he drew a picture of a nursery with a decapitated teddy bear and a blood trail out the window. By that age, though, who knows what motivated his thoughts. Could have been a friend, a movie, his feelings about his place in the family, shock value, etc.
Yes, but not necessarily. They might skip drawing some things because they are simply difficult for the child to draw. Hearts and rainbows and sunshine always make me feel like the child is happy. However, I remember being shown how to draw hills and a house and a sun and trees, and so that is what I most often drew.
If a child drew a very dark picture it might cause me to pause. The crayon box is full of bright colors; to go towards black and grey would be picking a color that would be randomly statisically rare if we think about it mathmatically. However, I look at cartoons today and I have trouble knowing who the good guys are. I expect cartoons to look like Fred Flintstone and George Jetson, but now they are dressed in slick costumes, and might look dark. I think what the child is exposed to also plays into their artwork.
As far as who is placed next to who. It does seem like if the dad is drawn sitting on the plane in the sky and the mommy and kids are next to the house on the ground, the dad probably travels a lot. If the child drawing is behind a rock away from the rest of the family then that would mean something to me too. I think I would draw my dad, then my mom, then me, then my sister. Tallest to shortest when I was a kid.
@SQUEEKY2 Is expressing a right amount of prudence in this. It is definitely something used by professional child counselors, but it requires a very strong awareness of the child’s developmental stage.
Young children don’t include all the features that an odler child will, so it’s important to view in context of the child’s age.
Child therapists will talk to a child as the child draws, the “story” that is verbalized as the child draws is just as important in the evaluation as the drawing itself.
It is not as simple as “Billy drew a picture with one eye and no mouth and therefore he is forbidden to talk about what he saw so he tries not to see.”
It is a long involved process, yet it can be useful for a professional working with the child.
I know they gave me all kinds of crap when my son was in middle school because he liked to draw armies fighting with guns and tanks and planes and ships and whatever else that 12 and 13 year old boys are interested in.. Most of them were small figures and doodles on the side of papers, that kind of things.
The school authorities called him in for an “evaluation”. When he came out I asked him what they had asked about and he laid out a fairly long laundry list of subjects that they brought up. I then asked him what he had told them.
His response: “I told them what they wanted to hear”.
Sometimes kids are smarter than those who are testing them.
Yes, interpreted by a therapist, not an amateur.
Other than that, it’s just kids’ art.
@rojo Gotta love it. Those adults think they are so smart. Ha!
Seriously, my answer is yes.
When my niece was being molested by her grandfather my wife and I knew something was up when her drawings began to feature blacked out nethers on the people she rendered.
The mother? Narcissistic bimbo bitch. Parents see what they want to see.
Children have limited means of expression. Elders should know what to look for.
@SecondHandStoke That’s the funniest thing ever lol. I’d rather burn to death than be saved by this hairy piece of shit.
Lmao
Yeah, I think if there is focus on the genitalia on a small kid’s drawings, that’s a flag.
I’m with @jca – an art therapist can learn a lot from them but I would be loathe to read much in as an amateur.
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