In this article we argue that research into children's drawings should consider the context in which drawing occurs and that it is crucial to investigate the attitudes and practices of teachers, parents and children themselves that shape children's drawing experience and the drawings which they produce. We review the findings of seven empirical…

Researchers have found a strong relationship between children's graphic imagery and the visual sources surrounding them. Children's imagination is not simply a personal, subjective mind state, but is strongly attached to visual and cultural traditions. Based on this concept, a study explored how children's imagination is related to their…

This study examines the emergence of aesthetic sensitivity in the young child as a maker of art and as a critic of the work of peers. Two studies were designed to explore the child's own, mostly implicit, assumptions about child art, sensitivity to stylistic and drawing system differences, and to compositional patterns that characterize the work…

Aspects of children's early representational drawing ability may provide evidence for feature marking in non-linguistic symbol systems. To test this assumption children in kindergarten, second, and fourth grade were asked to draw a set of referent objects in three conditions: a nominal or standard condition with no implied relationship ("two…

Graphic strategies employed by children, ages three to seven, to draw a family, children playing, a birthday party, and a garden were documented. Results indicated that strategies were task-dependent and flexible. The children developed progressively complex graphic routines in relating one figure to another within a composition. (Author/SR)

Examines the function of drawing by interviewing a wide range of people engaged in design activities. Promotes drawing for its vital contribution to two areas of design activities, exploration, and manipulation. Maintains that further research is necessary now that design and technology are part of the core curriculum in schools. (KM)

Analyzes 500 drawings by 258 Hong Kong Chinese and English children (ages 7-11) in order to assess intellectual, social, and emotional development. Found that, irrespective of race or culture, the drawings were symbolic and that similarities were more apparent than differences. Also found that as development proceeded, symbolism was increasingly…

Investigates school children's images of scientists in Brazil, the United States, France, Italy, Chile, Mexico, India, and Nigeria by having them make drawings. Discusses the relationship between image and career choice. (DDR)

Investigated the effectiveness of analyzing drawings of 8- to 12-year-old children as a method of understanding the effects of living and coping with ongoing civic unrest. Compared drawings by white and black South African children with those of children from Belfast, Ireland. Found cross-national differences in stress, emotion, adjustment, and…

The purpose of this study was to explore the conceptions, feelings and attitudes of elementary and junior high school students toward the topics of aging, the elderly, death, and dying. To gather data, an announcement was made to all schools within the state that the Rhode Island Gerontology Center would sponsor a contest for all school children…

This research deals with the development and relative importance of both the conceptual-cognitive and the aesthetic-affective aspect of the perceptual process at various age levels of children. Three tasks were chosen: (1) sorting drawings of human figures--a task that represents a more conceptual function; (2) expressing preferences for those…

The author suggests that the scoring criteria for the Draw-A-Woman Scale of the Goodenough-Harris Drawing Test reflect outmoded images and attitudes of the female. The woman-as-sex-object image is called the "Barbee Doll Mentality." This suggestion was tested in a sample of eleven to thirteen-year old sixth graders. The children--44 boys…

The use of young children's drawings as aids in assessing their levels of cognitive development and their readiness for reading is recommended in this paper. After showing how drawing development can be examined from a Piagetian point of view, the paper reports on an investigation involving 76 children aged five through eight years, which revealed…

To study the development of artistry across media, 45 kindergarten, first, and third grade children were given tasks in the media of drawing, clay, and storytelling. The tasks included spontaneous production, completion of a work, assembly of a work from numerous component parts, and copying a completed work. The spontaneous tasks were repeated…

Explores the extent to which social cognitive aspects of preschool children's free play behaviors varied according to two classroom contextual variables: (1) presence in different learning centers and (2) number of children and adults in those centers. Results incdicated that children behaved differently according to these variables. (Author/AS)