What your child’s drawings are telling you
“Mummy I drew this for you!” It melts your heart every time!!
But do your child’s drawings mean something?
Children communicate in so many ways. But sometimes children can have difficulty expressing their feelings through words. Drawing gives them a forum to express their emotions, fears and hopes through a non-verbal form of communication.
Interestingly, studies of the drawings of refugee children have shown that violence/war appears significantly more times than in drawings by non-refugee children. This suggests that children’s drawings can be used as a tool to assess their emotional state. So what are the elements we should be looking out for in our children’s drawings?
Photo by Alexander Dummer
We’ve compiled a list below, based on themes in figure drawings by children studied in the social and behaviour sciences. However, it’s important to note that sometimes drawings are just drawings, a playful manifestation of a child’s imagination that has no deeper meaning. The best way to interpret your child’s drawing is to ask them directly what the drawing means.
And of course, this only relates to “free drawings” or unassisted, unprompted drawings of self-expression. This does not relate to the artworks they may create in drawing or painting classes for kids.
Also note that psychological analysis of children’s drawings is based on the repetition of elements appearing in your child’s drawings, so a single drawing is not necessarily a good guide (source).
Photo by Jerry Wang
Common themes in figure drawings of children:
Impulsiveness - Big figures without necks and asymmetrical limbs. Children who consistently draw large figures can indicate overactivity. Pen pressure and the weight of the lines can also reflect muscle tension and energy levels. It is a common phenomenon that boys drawings reflect a rushed desire as opposed to girls. Whereas faint pen lines can indicate low levels of physical and mental energy.
Anxiousness - figures without eyes, sky elements like clouds, rain and flying birds
Shyness - can be indicated by short figures without noses or mouths, small figures with arms close to the body. Figures without eyes can indicate a lack of social ease or an unwillingness to mix with others.
Anger - figures with big hands, big noses, long arms and/or crossed eyes can indicate aggression. Interestingly, there is also a correlation between drawing large hands by children who steal. An enlarged mouth and teeth can also indicate aggression or may simply relate to children who talk a lot.
Photo by Marcus Spiske
Insecurity - figures with tiny heads and very large bodies, without hands or on a lean. Figures with large eyes can indicate a child feeling watched or controlled by others. But this can also just reflect the current trend in kids comics/manga where the eyes are enlarged as a “cute” style choice.
Helplessness - figures with small hands may indicate insecurity and helplessness. But note that a disabled child may simply forget to draw hands. Drawings with figures with outstretched hands can show a desire to connect to others or a willingness to help and interact. And children who regularly draw tiny figures may be expressing feelings of incompetence, shame or fear.
With all that said, it’s important to note that the analysis of children’s drawings should be done by specialists. This list is in no way intended to cause alarm. If you do recognise any of these drawing elements or traits repeatedly in your child’s drawings, it is not a cause for alarm. Remember, it is obsessively repeated elements in drawings that specialists are looking for. Even “violent scenes or the appearance of genital organs are not necessarily worrying signs, as long as they are not repeated obsessively” (source) A wholistic picture needs to be drawn (no pun intended) that includes other behavioural and environmental elements. Drawing itself cannot wholly be used as a source for your child’s mental state.
But if you do see something in this list that relates to your child’s behaviour, remember to ask your child what the drawing means before jumping to conclusions. Then with all the information, you can help shape your child and encourage them to express their fears, desires and needs more fully and help reassure them in that process. Drawing and painting can be a wonderful way to help your child process, grow and mature through difficult circumstances, perceived or real.
If you would like help in this area, consult a local art therapist or psychologist. Or if you simply want to encourage your child’s drawing abilities, search for art classes for kids in your area or try one of my online art courses for kids.
