Reading: Interpreting Childrens' Human Figure Drawings

i had read Interpreting Childrens' Human Figure Drawings by Yuehong Chen Foley & Fran Mullis. But yet doing a small reflection. Guideline for Drawing human figure includes face, head, body, arms and hands, legs and feet. Childrens' drawing are good indicators of emotion, self- esteem and social competence, as well as others' personality aspect. children in development age yet to develop linguistic skill, hence strong emotions can emerge in the form of images instead of words. Gil (2006) stated art activities provide  a safe and enjoyable means that encourage children to explore, making decisions, and problem solving, and provide a way for them to potray their inner world without having rely on words.

when talking about the hypothesis of children's human figure drawing, some areas to consider is : the developmental level, his/her talent for drawing, common interpretations of elements in a  drawing. usually arounds the age 2 & 3 years old children's love to scribbling, scribbling interpreted as picture. People and animal are typically drawn using a tadpole schema, with a circle for the head or for the head and trunk, and two dangling lines for legs. Facial  features and arms may be included but the figure has a look of a tadpole.  children are unaware of colours and choices and typically use whatever colour is close at hand (Malchiodi, 1998).


5 years to 8 years stage children know about the reality and sometimes depict the outside of a house, as well as what is inside the house, because they know that furniture and pictures are there, or they might show a persons' arm even though it is hidden by the body. It is call transparency X-ray drawing as well. Children begin to connect colour with what they see in the world around them, but is is difficult to know if the colours selected have a specific meaning.  The scaling and details of picture become more realistic during this stage. Children stop drawing tadpole human figures and instead draw a head, a separate trunk, attached arms and legs, and details such as hands, fingers and clothing


8 years to adolescence stage produce visually realistic drawing which correspond to the stage of concrete operations. Children began to use perspective and draw only what is visible from a certain point of view.  Children tend to develop rules for use of colour, such as brown or black for a tree trunk and green for the leaves.  to encourage reluctant clients to draw, Van Fleet suggested that draw "goofy" art and invite the students to add to the drawing.

Common Interpretations of Human Figure Drawing

Head and Face 

Pre-school : normal and common draw the head disaproportionately large
Age 7 or 8: draw large head on the figures
Very tiny head on a drawing points toward intense feelings of intellectual inadequacy (Koppitz, 1968)
Figures poorly integrated - head does not join the body ~~ achievement concerns
Mouth: reveal happiness or sadness with a smile or a frown, emphasizing the mouth can indicate speech and language difficulty, or being overly dependant (Klepsch & Logie)
Teeth: (many pointed teeth) a sign of aggrssiveness and may indicate physical abuse (peterson & Hardin, 1997), timid child will not draw teeth. A few teeth could indicate leadership abilities rather than aggression.
Nose: sign of respiratory system
Ears: hearing problem or no hearing problem, the child may suspicious of what others might saying about him or her
Eyes:  eyes with no pupils can  point to visual problems but also can suggeste that the child has trouble meeting and socializing with people. Drawing Xs for eyes could indicate physical abuse (Peterson&Hardin). large eyes hint at suspiciousness. Adolescent common give eyes cosmetic embellishment (Di leo, 1983).

 

Body

 the presense of a belly button in drawing by children up to age 6 or 7 suggesting dependency. Drawing sex organ can indicate aggresiveness or body anxiety. Genitalia are explicitly drawn is a strong indicator for sexual molestation.  Some drawing associates with sexual abuse may include: torsos with blood running down legs, two people in beds with dots, displaced body parts, large parts of the body crossed out, and a figure with a large open mouth. 

Arms and Hands

Long or Large Arm:  the child want to control others and desires strength and power, or can signals as desire to reach out to others.
Small Arm: point toward a fear of power or of the child eeing him/herself as weak or ineffective; can indicates as well-behave or withdrawn 
Arm that cling to the body : The child may have rigid inner controls and that it is dificult for the child to reach out to others; therefore may have poor interpersonal relationship.
Big hand: indicating as aggresiveness, often draw fingers end in points and look like claws or talons

Legs and Feet

Leg close together: indicates tensenes, an attempt to control sexual impulses, or a concern about a sexual attack by others. Girls who had been sexually abuseed by older men drew people with theirs leg pressed together.
Feet very large or heavily outlined: indicate the child seeks security or a firm footing,
Tiny feet : can be an indicator of feeling insecure or helpless

Other Indicator

Heavy lines:  frequently associated with children who are aggresive, forceful, and have high energy
Light lines: often associated with shyness, inhibitions, insecurity, and low energy
Boys typically use heavier lines than girls.
Excessive Erasures: related to anxiety, with increased shading pointing toward increased anxiety.

Shading the faces: very significant and indicates about the part that is shaded, but shading is age related and is fairly common up to age 8 for gils and 9 for boys; after that, shading is more likely to indicate concern for the shaded body part. Transparent body parts can suggest anxiety and concern about the body part.

Guidelines for Interpeting
clients need a safe and private psychological environment to experience their inner emotions and resolve conflict. Using open questioning skill likes; " Tell me a story about what you have drawn" or " Tell me about your picture"..............


 Overall Impression of Drawings
 Keeping that admonition in mind, first consider your overall impression of the picture. The general impression provides an idea of the child's mood at the time the picture was drawn.  3 principles in art interpretation:
(a)  keep in mind your initial impression of a picture without sharing so as to allow the client's associations of inner world and drawings to develop
(b) act as an open-minded researcher to look at focal points systematically
(c)synthesize what you have learned from individual components and assemble this information into a whole.

suggestions for interpreting drawing:

use of colours
colour - emotions/ behaviour. and body
overuse of one colour can lead to excessive emotional response, extreme reactions and restlessness, whereas, the smearing and playing with bright colours enable clients to experience various aspects of their personalities.
depressed people - use fewer colours
trauma clients - use more red and black
outgoing child - prefer warm colours like red and orange
introverts - more sensitive to cool, calming colours and report th warms colours to be distressing.

size of people
children who draw draw small figures of people (about 1 to 3 inches high)  frequently are timid, shy, insecure
people who take up most of the page may indicates childrens' aggressiveness with poor  inner control
when children drawn some people proportionately larger than other, it could connote  that the larger drawn person isimportant to the child in some way, or it could mean that the person is aggressive.

placement on the page
placing figures at or near the lower edge of the paper may indicative of feelings of inadequacy and insecurity and a need for support.
drawingslant bt 15 degrees or more imply imbalance and lack of a secure footing.
drawing figures upper half  of the paper- optimism and fantasy
placing the figures of the person who represent the child doing the drawing close to other figures can mean that the child feels, or wants to feel, close to that person, or has a desire to be protected by that person.