Contrary to what is sometimes believed, there is no direct link between drawing and intelligence
Sometimes it happens that mothers are worried about the way they draw their children: usually to worry them is the comparison between the drawings of their child and those of peers. The doubt that rises concerns the inadequacy of the skills of representation: the images that their children trace on the sheet seem to be too simple, not very advanced, poor. So they wonder if there is a link between drawing and intelligence, and how to help them improve.
Graphically represent a real, three -dimensional object, on the surface of the two -dimensional sheet involves complex interactive processes and different skills. The designer needs to know the tools he uses and must be able to use them correctly, for example he needs to know that the pencil must be used with the tip facing the sheet and that it must be moved by controlling its movements.
If he is asked to copy an object, he must have a good eye-brown coordination to harmonize what he sees with what he draws. If, on the other hand, the object is not visible, the mnemonic capacity is activated to consult an internal model. So, Also for drawing, like speaking, the rule applies that each child has his time.
A path in stages
If we refer to healthy children, in the absence of disability or delays, it is important to know that, especially around 4 years, it is very frequent that there are substantial diversity in the evolution of the graphic representation capacity, in the styles and ways that children choose.
Already in the mid -70s, the historian of art and German psychologist Rudolf Arnheim said: “The fact should be kept in mind that there is no fixed relationship between the age of the child and the degree of evolution of his drawings».
This concept is still current, and connects to intra-individual variability: inter-individual variability is represented by the fact that children belonging to the same evolutionary period can produce qualitatively very different designs; Intra-individual variability, however, explains why a single child does not always and only expect as we expect from him: often in his drawings, or even in the same design, you can find recurring patterns, significant variability and even elements that could refer to different evolutionary stages. All these characteristics may appear side by side, without apparent continuity or regularity.
Represent the human figure
Despite the existence of these variables, All children, in the different cultures of the world, follow similar stadiums in the development of the graphic representation of the human figure.
- Around 3 years, after the scarabocchio, children use a single closed and rounded shape to represent the head and the trunk, and often, but not always, they include a pair of lines in order to depict the legs and arms (little man or man-game, in English tadpole). The duration of the “phase tadpole“, Like that of the subsequent stages, varies from child to child: for some it can last a few days and for other months, but it may also not appear: there is no fixed rule
- Around 4 years the children begin to differentiate the head from the trunk and to represent separately arms and legs, first with transition representations (for example by adding a line between the two segments of the limbs of the tadpole) and then with the so -called conventional figures, composed of six parts (head, trunk, arts)
- Subsequently, the drawings will acquire complexity and details. Usually the neck is not represented spontaneously before 6 years. The girls tend to include many details (eyelashes, hair, stops, necklaces and earrings), which children often leave out, but these are mostly individual characteristics and aesthetic styles that do not correspond to specific characteristics or cognitive skills.
These examples show that The graphic representation is closely linked to the individual development process and not necessarily at the age of registry. We can therefore say that drawing and intelligence are not necessarily connected.
Drawing and intelligence
The results of a research conducted in New Zealand and published in an authoritative American magazine show that individual differences in the development of the infantile graphic ability do not reflect differences in intelligence.
In fact, it has been seen that although in the group participating in the study there was a weak correlation between the ability to draw the human figure and the intelligence test, carefully investigating the profiles of each child, it emerged that children follow a series of stadiums in learning the drawing, but progress through these phases is not identical from one child to another. In conclusion, The design of the human figure does not represent a valid measure of intellectual skill for the individual.
