Interpretation of Children's Drawings
Are the lines and shapes drawn by our child happening randomly, or is there a meaning behind them?
Not only do drawings help children be more expressive, but they also open a window to their thoughts and feelings.
Children communicate with the world around them differently than adults. Our children don’t have the broad range of vocabulary to tell us about their emotions and dreams during the early ages. Verbal communication becomes a small opening into their very active mind. But we can understand our children's mental and psychological state by analyzing their drawings at a deeper level. It can introduce us to their fears, excitements, joys and dreams.
We should use their drawings as an opportunity to have open-ended conversations with them and enhance our communications. Let your children be the ones to tell you about their drawings. That’s how the conversation should start. Help them to open up by asking open-ended questions. It would be best if you were an active listener during this process.
After listening to their story, you can better analyze the elements of the drawing to interpret it better. Sometimes the very first feeling that you get from your child’s drawing can be the actual feeling that they are trying to convey. You might ask yourself, is the picture making me sad or content? Is it peaceful or stressful? The answer to these questions could be the clue to understand and unlock the message behind their drawings.
For example
A picture of a smiling and full sun in the middle of the page shows that our child feels cheerful, happy and satisfied.
Sticky figures could present the family members in our children’s drawings. The placement of each figure, the size of their heads (the biggest figure is the most important family member in our child’s point of view), and how close or far they are drawn from the main character (our child) can all tell us important information about how our child feels about their family.
Do you want to learn how to decode your children’s drawings?
For better interpreting our children’s drawing, we will look into it from 3 different angles: shapes, colors and common objects.
Let’s dive deep!
Shapes
There are three stages to our children’s drawings.
1. Scribbling (1.5-3 Yrs): Mostly just simple marks on the paper. Some call this sort of drawing “fortuitous realism.” it means that looking at the drawing, you might see shapes that could resemble a house, a car etc. So, in short, you may not notice anything if you look at the lines. But what is drawn on the paper is "daddy’s coming home from work,” etc.
2. Pre-Schematic(3-5 Yrs): Attempting to recreate what they see with their eyes. They start to draw simple things like a house, car or stick figures to show people. Children start adding more details to their drawings, like having flowers in front of the house or having clothes on their stick figures.
3. Schematic (+6 Yrs): At this stage, our children learn to have a unified theme throughout their drawings. There is more depth, realism, more details in the drawings. The more children grow cognitional, the more details they add to their drawings.
What does the quality of lines tell us?
Light, broken lines could reveal a hesitant, insecure child. However, the bold, freely drawn lines could express children’s self-esteem and feeling of security.
Colors
What are the common colors our children might use to communicate their mental state?
Colour choice is the second most crucial factor in our children’s drawings.
As children grow, they are exposed to a wide range of experiences and emotions, and everything they encounter is exciting and new to them. A healthy child's response to all this information and emotional input is to use different colours in the painting. The more colours the child uses in his paintings, the happier and more excited he is about his life. Using colours helps to express emotions better; however, excessive use of a specific colour can also symbolize the child's emotional state.
In general, a child who uses a lot of blue and green colours feels happy and cheerful. Warm colours such as orange and yellow symbolize the child's vitality, while dark colours could show depression and sadness and the child's need for help.
Let’s look at some of the colours and what they mean in children’s drawings. These are general guidelines.
Red: Shows excitement and joy. One of the most popular colours for children to use.
Pink: Shows need for love and appreciation. Most often favoured by girls.
Green: shows interest in being different, having some space. Used by children who are more artistic and intelligent.
Yellow: shows intelligence and bright, sunny nature.
Black & Purple: Shows dominance. Used by children who are a bit more demanding.
Blue: Shows care. Used by children who like to have company; who are naturally caring.
Common Objects
Does the incompleteness or completeness of the children's drawings have anything to do with their personality?
If the child constantly abandons his painting or draws weak lines, they will probably need encouragement.
Semi-finished paintings may also indicate an unstable and inconsistent personality. Yet, if this pattern persists over a longer period of time, it is best for the child's parents to consider consulting a psychologist.
The presence of erasers and many corrections in the painting can signify a high level of child anxiety. Conversely, excessive painting arrangements may indicate a child's need for attention.
Let’s look into some of the most common drawings that we might see from our children in different emotional stages and what they could mean.
What does a hole in the ground mean?
This is a typical drawing of a child who has recently experienced a loss. This loss is usually in the form of a family member’s death or their pet’s. If the child is alone in his painting, he feels very lonely and helpless.
What do clouds and rain mean in children's drawings?
The presence of large clouds and rain in the child's painting can indicate that the child is experiencing anxiety or fear. If the child explicitly has these feelings, they may be painting themselves standing under a cloud.
What does the presence of a monster mean in children’s drawings?
Many children's stories have scary, strange creatures. So such drawings may refer to nothing but the child's interpretation of these stories. On the other hand, psychologists believe that drawing monsters may be a mechanism for coping with feelings of weakness and helplessness in children.
What does drawing a house mean?
You can see some interesting details in the children's drawings. For example, find the number of windows, whether the door is open or closed, whether there is a way to the house, etc. More windows indicate that the child wants people to see what is happening in the place. An open door means the child welcomes other people. Having a path towards the home can show an utterly social child who has good social interactions with their peers.
What do angry faces in children's drawings show about their family members?
A child who draws their family members’ angry faces is usually experiencing some emotional trauma.
An adult who is in some way at risk can show fear of losing that person for the child. Or the child is angry with that person.
Family members harming children in their drawings could indicate some fear or abuse.
It’s okay to see objects that might seem alarming to us, drawn by our children, if that happens sporadically. But if this pattern continues, we should seek help from some specialists. Some of those situations are as follow:
Repeated drawings of violent objects such as guns.
Repeated drawings of a person or an object bigger than our child on paper. (gigantic)
Drawing of body parts being separated.
Repeated usage of extremely dark colours and unpleasant images.
When looking at our children’s drawings, it is essential to look at them as a whole. Analyze the entire drawing, not piece by piece. Ask your child what they drew. You do not have to have a deep and unpleasant impression of each drawing or scribble you see from your child. Drawing benefits are much more than the remote possibility that our children could become professional artists.
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