Children’s Drawings

Children’s drawings have received a wealth of attention since the early 20th century from many different perspectives. Scholars have examined a broad range of external and internal influences on the drawing process and analyzed children’s drawings for signs of internal representations, emotional influences, and trends in drawing development. People have questioned whether we can reliably see the often enchanting and disturbing forms and colors in children’s drawings as signs of their thoughts and feelings. Researchers have investigated the precise cognitive, perceptual, and motor skills that develop to afford children the ability to produce realistic and expressive drawings. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries educational, cultural, and developmental differences have been studied to ascertain influences on atypical drawing development. Researchers have also gathered often mixed evidence and made different recommendations about the value, benefit, and use of children’s drawings in applied settings.