Analysis and Interpretation of Children’s Drawings RESEARCH PROJECT ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF CHILDREN’S DRAWINGS Name: Betty Edwards 12th of December 2016 1 Analysis and Interpretation of Children’s Drawings CONTENTS Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 5 THEORETICAL PART 1. The study of children’s drawings............................................................................................... 7 1.1 Definition of Drawing .......................................................................................................... 7 1.2 History of the drawing ......................................................................................................... 9 1.2.1 Early History ................................................................................................................. 9 1.2.2 The Middle Ages ......................................................................................................... 10 1.2.3 The Renaissance ......................................................................................................... 11 1.2.4 The Renaissance in Northern Europe ......................................................................... 12 1.2.5 The 1600's and 1700's ................................................................................................ 12 1.2.6 The 1800's and 1900's ................................................................................................ 13 1.3 Emotional points ............................................................................................................... 14 1.3.1 Drawing as emotional development .......................................................................... 14 1.3.2 Drawing as social development ................................................................................. 14 1.3.3 Drawing as a therapy .................................................................................................. 15 1.3.4 Drawing to express identity and emotions ................................................................ 15 1.3.5 The impact of drawing on children’s communication ................................................ 16 1.3.6 When to call the psychologist? .................................................................................. 16 1.3.7 Measuring the intellectual level of children by their drawings ................................. 17 2. Family drawings ....................................................................................................................... 19 2.1 The Study of Children's Drawings ...................................................................................... 19 2.2 The development of children’s drawings .......................................................................... 19 2.3 Drawing as a communicative tool ..................................................................................... 20 2.4 The meaning of the drawings ............................................................................................ 20 2.5 Why children’s drawing are interpreted ........................................................................... 22 2.6 From the scribble to the firsts shapes ............................................................................... 22 2.7 Choice of paper and colours.............................................................................................. 27 2.8 The details increased ......................................................................................................... 27 3. Family drawings ....................................................................................................................... 28 3.1 Parents and children: Family interaction in the composition of the human being .......... 28 3.1.1 The history and evolution of the family ..................................................................... 28 3.1.2 Concept of family ....................................................................................................... 34 2 Analysis and Interpretation of Children’s Drawings 3.1.3 Family functions ......................................................................................................... 35 3.1.4 Evolutionary changes within the family ..................................................................... 38 3.1.5 Family control ............................................................................................................. 39 3.1.6 Sibling’s relations ....................................................................................................... 40 4. Family drawing test according to Louis Corman .................................................................... 41 4.1 Instructions and administration ........................................................................................ 42 4.2 Post-questioning ............................................................................................................... 42 4.3 Family drawing’s interpretation ........................................................................................ 43 4.4 Plan of formal structures (scenario) .................................................................................. 45 4.5 Content or clinical interpretation ...................................................................................... 45 4.6 Psychoanalytical interpretation ........................................................................................ 47 4.7 The expression of emotional conflicts in family drawings ................................................ 49 4.8 Conflicts of fraternal rivalry............................................................................................... 50 4.9 Oedipus conflicts ............................................................................................................... 53 4.10 Oedipus relation .............................................................................................................. 54 4.11 Oedipus rivalry ................................................................................................................ 55 4.12 Oedipus complex ............................................................................................................. 55 5. The family test drawing by Josep Maria Lluís- Font. ............................................................... 56 5.1 Introduction....................................................................................................................... 56 5.2 Material needed to carry out the test of the drawing family by Lluís- Font ..................... 57 5.3 Analysis and interpretation of the drawing family ........................................................... 57 5.3.1 General features ......................................................................................................... 57 5.4 Character’s valuation in family drawings .......................................................................... 64 5.4.1 The first figure drawn ................................................................................................. 64 5.4.2 The last figure drawn.................................................................................................. 65 5.4.3 Omission of a family member .................................................................................... 66 5.4.4 Corporal features omitted.......................................................................................... 66 5.4.5 Additions .................................................................................................................... 67 5.5 Organization and order of the characters in a drawing .................................................... 67 6. Family drawings as a projective technique ............................................................................. 69 6.1 What projective techiques are .......................................................................................... 69 6.2 Guidelines to take into account when analysing graphical projective techniques ........... 70 6.2.1 Formal guidelines of drawing ..................................................................................... 71 6.3 Family drawings records ................................................................................................... 73 3 Analysis and Interpretation of Children’s Drawings 6.4 The family drawing as a graphical projective technique in the psycho diagnostic procedure ................................................................................................................................ 75 6.4.1 Characteristics of the technique ............................................................................... 76 6.4.2 Management of the test ............................................................................................ 76 7. The kinetic test of the present family ..................................................................................... 78 7.1 Requirements for the Kinetic Test .................................................................................... 78 7.2 Analysis and interpretation ............................................................................................... 79 7.2.1 General conduct of the child in relation to the task and the interviewer ................. 79 8. Disorders ................................................................................................................................