DRAWING and CHILDREN
Painting can be considered as an indicator of mental development and the way an individual explains his complex world that he tries to organize himself.
The main importance of children’s pictures is that they reflect the child’s way of thinking and its content. The picture is accepted as an indicator of the child’s perception of the outside world. What is important here is what the visually reflected subject means.
Clinically, the picture is useful in the evaluation of personality or in the recognition of mental disorders. As a means of expressing emotions in treatment, painting has clinical therapeutic value.
As a communication tool, painting is also of great importance as a means of expression that reflects the child’s intelligence, personality, close environment and inner world. Drawings are seen as the reflection of mental image on paper. Painting, which is a stronger expression tool than words at young ages, is not the only tool in determining personality-perception-interpersonal relations-group values and attitudes; however, it can be a complement to another projective scale used for this purpose, observation or interview with the child. Unlike other projective techniques such as drawing, sentence completion and word association, it also includes an important dimension such as fantasy and imagination. The child’s painting work is greatly influenced by his subconscious desires and fears; but the expression of these desires can be symbolic or hidden. In this sense, painting is a way to purify suppressed emotions.
At the beginning of the important views about child painting, there are those that classify child painting according to developmental stages. Accordingly, he examines the developmental stages with pictures in terms of three basic periods:
1. meaningless, simple doodles period
2. distinctive shapes period
3. meaningful shapes period
Children begin simple scribbling towards the age of two. At the age of 2-3 years, it is seen that distinctive shapes are formed. At the age of 3-4, meaningful shapes (diagrams) emerge. Towards the age of 4, children can see people, animals, buildings, etc. they reach a new stage by drawing their pictures.
The most important difference between simple scribbles, clear shapes and meaningful shapes is this: simple scribbles and clear shapes emerge spontaneously, while meaningful shapes emerge after thinking about them.
The circle is the expression of the transition from abstract to concrete (sun, human pictures, etc.) in the artistic activity of the child.
The child uses colors until the age of 4-5 without making any discrimination or prior decision. After this period, the child will gradually go to use lots of colors, starting from bright and light colors. At first, he is content with three primary colors, red, yellow and blue. According to expert observation, children who use red frequently or paint the whole page with red are sometimes characterized by their aggressive and assertive behavior.
Human figure drawings are the most common in children’s paintings. In studies conducted with the ‘draw a human picture’ test, it has been revealed that children generally prefer figures of their own kind. This is explained by the fact that the child has gained his own sexual identity
The house figure in children’s paintings is the center where the emotional life of the child is formed. The life in the house has an important place in the paintings. The parent figure, on the other hand, is the dominant parent, and regardless of their physical size, they are usually drawn larger than other family members.
As mentioned before, painting is just one of the ways to help us understand children. It is not correct to generalize about the mental development and condition of the child by looking at the picture alone.
SOURCES:
1. Yavuzer H. Child with Pictures. 11th Edition. Istanbul: Remzi Bookstore; 2005.
2. Malchiodi CA Understanding Children’s Paintings. 1st Edition. Istanbul: Epsilon Bookstore; 2005
