Understanding the Cognitive, Conative & Affective Developmental Maturity of Children with Special Needs through Their Scribbles & Single Human

Figure Drawings

Dr Noel K.H. ChiaAsst/Professor, NIE

What are scribbles?

Examples of Children’s Scribbles

Random Scribbles

Combined Scribbles

MODEL #1: Herbert Read (1966)

Phases Age Range Developmental AbilitiesPhase 1: 2-4 years old ScribblesPhase 2: 4 years old LinesPhase 3: 5-6 years old Descriptive SymbolismPhase 4: 7-8 years old Descriptive RealismPhase 5: 9-10 years old Visual RealismPhase 6: 11-14 years old RepressionPhase 7: 14 years old Artistic Revival

MODEL #2: Viktor Lowenfeld (1978)

Stages Age Range Development AbilitiesStage 1: 2-4 years old Scribbling Self expressionStage 2: 4-7 years old Pre-schematic Representational

doodling attemptStage 3: 7-9 years old Schematic Concept formation

drawingStage 4: 9-11 years old Pre-realism Emerging of realismStage 5: 11-13 years old Pseudo- Reasoning

naturalismStage 6: 14-16 years old Naturalistic & Decision making

representationaldrawing

The chart on the right shows Rhoda Kellogg’s (1969/1970) classification system of 20 styles of children’s scribbles.

An estimated scribbling developmental age equivalent:

1-5 scribble types: 12 mths 6-10 scribble types: 24 mths11-15 scribble types: 36 mths16-20 scribble types: 48 mths

How old do you think the drawer (1, drawing above) is?

How old do you think the drawer (2, drawing below) is?

Scribbling StageThe Scribbling Stage occurs around 14 months of

age with little muscle control. The scribbles are shapeless and purposeless and they can be wavy or zigzag. Scribbling involves sweeping movements of the arm from elbow or shoulder. These scribbles are also known as meaningless doodles. It is from this primitive form of drawing that all graphic art eventually grows.

Sub-stage 1: Disordered ScribblesThese are uncontrolled scribbles, bold or light, depending on the amount of force

exerted by the drawer and also the drawer’s personality. The drawer has no or little control over his/her motor activity.

Sub-stage 2: Longitudinal ScribblesThese scribbles are controlled grapho-motor repetitions. The drawer at this sub-

stage shows a visual awareness as well as enjoyment of kinaesthetic-tactile movements.

Sub-stage 3: Circular ScribblesAt this sub-stage, the drawer explores and controls his/her grapho-motor

orientations and co-ordinations to his/her ability to do more complex forms. Sub-stage 4: Naming ScribblesAt this sub-stage, the drawer narrates his/her own stories about the scribbles. There

is a change from kinaesthetic thinking in terms of grapho-motor orientations and co-ordinations to imaginative thinking in terms of meaningful pictures.

At the second stage, known as Scribbles and Grapho-motor Control, occurs around 18 months, during which scribbling begins to change gradually to include circular grapho-motor rotations that are interspersed with lines. The drawer at this stage enjoys watching another child drawing.

It is during this period of development that the drawer develops the ability to bring under control of his/her own mind and body including the control of muscles in hand, wrist and arm. There is a conscious collaboration of mind and body in the drawer.

In the next stage, known as Scribbles and Precision, happens around age 2, when the drawer begins to develop an ability to use his/her arms, wrist and finger muscles to produce more demanding lines, angles, zigzags and crosses. The drawer will also meet challenges to his/her perception, memory and hand-eye co-ordination which, in turn, involves the building up of knowledge storehouse about motions and products with varying results. This grapho-motor skill continues to develop with a gradual increased mastery of forming formal, recognisable pictures.

In the final stage of Scribbling, also known as the Beginning of

Precision, involves more restricted grapho-motor strokes that do not spread across page or just isolated lines, sometimes known as “a flower”.

Please take note that Scribbles and Doodles are different.

Doodles are little figures, designs and sketches.

Scrawls and scribbles are roughly executed, illegible or barely legible grapho-signs.

Doodles tell a story (by Lisabel Ting)This article was first published in Mind Your Body, The Straits Times on Mar 26, 2008

Doodling has always been an effective way of keeping boredom at bay.

But a doodle is also said to speak volumes about its creator, be it a sketch of a flower or of a knife dripping with blood.

That a drawing can give insight into one's personality and mental state is a fact that has not been overlooked by psychologists and therapists.

This is certainly the case in dialogic-diagnostic art therapy (DDAT), a relative of the better known expressive art therapy.

While expressive art therapy is geared towards having a curative effect on a mental, emotional or behavioral disorder, DDAT allows a trained therapist to access the subconscious elements of a client's psyche and to interpret drawings to help diagnose his condition.

Madam Salenah Mohd Ismail, a registered DDAT therapist with the International Association of Counselors and Therapists (IACT) and the founder of the DDAT company, Art Heals, says that DDAT can let a therapist know more than just how a child is feeling.

'DDAT tells us about the somatic (physical) situation in a child. It can also tell us about the future... drawing is a bit like dreaming, there's always a subconscious element in the

images,' says Madam Salenah.

She cites the example of a young boy who drew a self-portrait with a dark band around his throat, metaphorically suffocating himself. Two months later, the boy was diagnosed with asthma.

Aside from being a window into the subconscious, these drawings can also be used as a springboard for the therapist to broach more personal issues.

'At first she was very quiet, and didn't want to talk,' says Madam Selenah of one of her clients, a nine-year-old girl.

'But in her drawing, she used deep, dark bold strokes for her house compared to everything else in the picture. So I knew that something was not right. When I asked her about it, she began to relate her story... and it turned out she had been sexually abused.'

DDAT can also be used to evaluate a child's mental age and intelligence.

Through tests like the Goodenough Draw-A-Person test (a drawing test devised by pioneering American psychologist Florence Goodenough to evaluate children for a variety of reasons), we can find out a child's drawing quotient (dQ). It can tell us about their IQ, says Madam Loke Ying Ying, principal of the Ananias Centre in Clementi and a registered DDAT therapist with the IACT.

Draw-a-Person Test• A test used to measure nonverbal intelligence or to screen for emotional or

behavior disorders.• Based on children's drawings of human figures, this test can be used with

two different scoring systems for different purposes. • One measures nonverbal intelligence while the other screens for emotional

or behavioral disorders. • During the testing session, which can be completed in 15 minutes, the child

is asked to draw three figures—a man, a woman, and him- or herself. • To evaluate intelligence, the test administrator uses the Draw-a-Person: QSS

(Quantitative Scoring System). This system analyzes fourteen different aspects of the drawings, such as specific body parts and clothing, for various criteria, including presence or absence, detail, and proportion.

• In all, there are 64 scoring items for each drawing. A separate standard score is recorded for each drawing, and a total score for all three.

Draw-a-Person Test (continued)

• The use of a nonverbal, nonthreatening task to evaluate intelligence is intended to eliminate possible sources of bias by reducing variables like primary language, verbal skills, communication disabilities, and sensitivity to working under pressure.

• However, test results can be influenced by previous drawing experience, a factor that may account for the tendency of middle-class children to score higher on this test than lower-class children, who often have fewer opportunities to draw.

• To assess the test-taker for emotional problems, the administrator uses the Draw-a-Person: SPED (Screening Procedure for Emotional Disturbance) to score the drawings. This system is composed of two types of criteria. For the first type, eight dimensions of each drawing are evaluated against norms for the child's age group. For the second type, 47 different items are considered for each drawing.

Research done on DaP

A young child goes through several drawing stages, such as the 'tadpole man', where a figure's legs are joined directly to an oversized head. More details are added as the child ages.

A DDAT therapist can determine a child's mental age and dQ by tallying the number of certain pre-determined characteristics such as fingers, eyes with pupils and hair partings. The more of these indicators present, the higher a child's dQ.

DDAT can also be used as an indicator of possible mental problems such as autism and schizophrenia.

While a child's drawing in itself is not sufficient to make a diagnosis, DDAT can be useful in early detection.

For example, if a child repeatedly and obsessively draws a single feature, it could point towards the obsessive-compulsive behavior often displayed by autistics.

Hidden problems

Childish doodles may look simple to most. But DDAT tests and analyses can reveal hidden problems.

It is not always easy to get a small child to sit down and draw, say therapists, as they can be easily distracted. But this is a small problem compared to the tedious nature of the analysis.

In order to get a complete picture of a child's condition, therapists have to review every single bit of the drawing process, taking note of whether the child draws from left to right, top to bottom, erases a lot or flips the paper over.

Madam Loke tapes everything with a video camera to review later.

Then the drawings are analyzed. Colors can be important indicators, say therapists, who also look out for anything that deviates from a normal childish drawing.

These include consistently missing limbs or distorted proportions in body parts. Or when one family member is drawn exaggeratedly larger compared to the rest.

'It takes a child five minutes to draw, but it takes us a week to analyze,' says Madam Loke.

However, although Dialogic-Diagnostic Art Therapy (DDAT) may seem extremely useful, is it really reliable?

Accuracy and reliability depend heavily on the years of experience and advance training that these professionals have gone through, says Dr K.H. Chia, a board-certified educational therapist and the only trainer registered with the IACT that conducts DDAT programs in Singapore.

Thus, if a parent suspects that his child is consistently drawing something unusual, it is best to refer the case to a therapist instead of immediately jumping to conclusions.

'I had a case where a seven-year-old girl, drew a tree, a house, a light blue sky and an open blue field,' says Madam Salenah.

'That worried me... but when I asked her why the field was blue, her reply was simply this: 'I have no green crayon.' '

Photos: Lisabel Ting (ST journalist)

Analyses: Dr K.H. Chia (assistant professor) Mdm Salenah Mohd Ismail (registered dialogic-

diagnostic art therapist)Mdm Loke Ying Ying (registered dialogic-

diagnostic art therapist)Mdm Christabel Hong (counselling psychologist)

Doodles tell a story

Lisabel Ting Wed, Mar 26, 2008Mind Your Body, The Straits Times

An example of human figure drawing at pre-symbolic stage

Around three to four years of age, children begin to combine the circle with one or more lines in order to represent a human figure. These figures typically start out looking like “tadpoles” and then gradually become “head-feet” symbols.

Another example of human figure drawing at pre-symbolic stage

It is not uncommon for children's first representations of the figure to be highly unrealistic or to be missing a neck, body, arms, fingers, feet, or toes. Children may, in fact, draw two tadpoles to show their mother and father without making visible distinctions between the two figures.

At this stage, says therapists, most children should be able to draw figures in proportion, with the trunk clearly and distinctly with limbs attached at correct positions.

This is a drawing by a boy, seven, suspected of being the victim of sexual abuse by his ‘big brother’ – a family friend – whom he drew bigger than the rest.

He only drew legs on the figures and himself into the picture when asked to do so.

He exhibits bizarre behavioral issues, like urinating on the floor, playing with fire, using objects to poke his sister’s genitals as well as playing with his own.

He is also a bed wetter.

This family portrait was drawn by a boy, six, whose mother thought he was ‘possessed by a monkey spirit’.

There has been no diagnosis done by a hospital yet and his case is still pending.

However, note the disproportionate black eyes and the distorted figure. Therapists say that when this boy comes in for therapy, it is obvious that he is mentally disturbed, and he often engages in confused self talk. He also hallucinates.

How old do you think the child of the drawing (left) is?

How old do you think the child of the drawing (right) is?

Evanston Early Identification Scale: Screening for Children at-risk of LDs1-7: Child is fine; 8-14: Need further observation; 15-21: Must refer for special help

No. Items Points Score unobserved items

Remarks

1. Hair 1

2. Eyes 2

3. Nose 2

4. Mouth 3

5. Arms 2

6. Hands 2

7. Legs 1

8. Feet 2

9. Body 4

10 Correct position of body parts 2

Total Score (21)

Drawing 1 Drawing 2

Drawing 3 Drawing 4

Drawing 5 Drawing 6

Drawing 7 Drawing 8 Drawing 9

Let’s compute the drawer’s mental age using the computerised DaP kit.

Hands are drawn: Positive drawings

Hands are drawn: Negative drawings

Legs are drawn: Positive drawings

Legs are drawn: Negative drawings

Some recommended books on

dialogic-diagnostic art therapy