Children’s Growth Through Art

Did you know there is a huge connection between the development of a child’s artistic abilities and his/her cognitive development?

In fact, a child’s art work is indicative of his/her developing abilities in motor skills, perception, language, symbol formation, sensory awareness and spatial orientation (Malchiodi, 1998).

As you may remember from Art Therapy and Social Work, I’m currently taking a class in art therapy for social workers. Today is a second post in the art therapy series in which I will be sharing with you some key learnings from class. 

This week, as our drawing exercise, we were told to draw something that we remember drawing from childhood. I drew the above house. 

The end result of our class exercise was an array of pictures that illustrated some of the stages of artistic development. Barring severe handicaps, all children go through specific stages in their drawing development (Viktor Lowenfeld, 1947).  

Knowing how children draw at different age ranges gives you a basis of comparison when working with children with cognitive, developmental or physical problems and those who have suffered trauma, crisis or an emotional event in their lives.

Below is a summary chart illustrating artistic stages nearly all children go through, as well as drawings to correspond with each phase.* 

Stages of Artistic Development

Many children lose interest in drawing at the stage of “dawning realism” stage because they become frustrated with their attempts at representing real life in their drawings. As a result, adults often draw at this level or slightly below because this is where they ended their art education.

*Age ranges are approximate. Each child is unique and some children may take longer than others to pass through certain stages. In addition, children may go back and forth between stages. For instance, a child in the Tadpole stage may draw human figures one day and revert back to the circles or scribbles characteristic of the Scribble phase the next day. This type of fluctuation is common and to be expected.

That said, when an eight year old child’s drawing looks like a four year old child’s, this could be the result of either a developmental disability or chronic trauma.

When there is no cognitive delay and there are emotional issues that are reflected as developmental delays in drawings, the developmental delays will disappear over time as you are working with the child and the concerns get resolved.

One interesting example the professor shared with us is that we may see cases where a child is drawing with us at age level and then experiences a regression with us. This could be simply triggered by a memory or a thought that occurs to the child in the midst of his/her work.

How would you detect the regression? You would see it in the child’s behavior (acting out, reverting to a younger child’s behavior etc.) and you would see it in the child’s art work. For example, in the same drawing, one figure drawing is at the schematic level but the other figure is at the pre-schematic level.

When there is regression, it is our job to comfort the child and help the child get back together so that he/she can function again in class/outside world. For example, we could suggest drawing or doing an activity that typically is soothing or pleasing to the child. This would assist the child to forget whatever it was that had caused the emotional regression and return to his/her normal state of equilibrium.

I’m hoping that you found this information interesting and helpful. What style do you think my house drawing represents? Does knowing this information make you view your work with children any differently than before? What other thoughts or comments come to mind?

Caveats:
1) I am a social worker and not an art therapist. The above information is only meant to be seen as a taste of what is involved in art therapy.
2) Please do not substitute material on this site for consultation with an art therapist or mental health professional. It is not intended to serve as mental health advice, let alone assessment, diagnosis, or treatment.
3) Before practicing art therapy, one must obtain sufficient training, supervision and licensing.  So You Want to be an Art Therapist, Part Two: Art Therapy Education describes some of the different paths available to those interested in art therapy as a profession or as an additional technique for those who have a master’s degree in licensed mental health professions like counseling and social work.

References: D. Fagen, LCSW, LCAT, ATR-BC, Creative arts therapy in clinical social work lecture, February 13, 2012.
Malchiodi, C. A. (1998). Understanding children’s drawings. New York: Guilford Press.

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