Children and Pictures

In Children and Pictures, Richard P. Jolley critiques both the historical and contemporary studies conducted in the field of children’s making and understanding of pictures.

Some highlights of Children and Pictures are:

• What develops, and why, in children’s representational and expressive drawing, both in typical, atypical, and cross-cultural populations.
• The developing relationship between production and comprehension of pictures.
• Children’s understanding of pictures as symbolic representations.
• Practical and applied uses of drawings, particularly in clinical and legal settings.
• Diverse educational practices of teaching drawing across the world.

Presenting up-to-date research and pointing towards future topics of study, Children and Pictures brings the study of children’s drawings into mainstream child development studies. This is an edifying resource for students, researchers, practitioners, parents, artists, and educators in the field.

Acknowledgments vi

Credits viii

Introduction 1

1 The Development of Representational Drawing 6

2 The Development of Expressive Drawing 36

3 Drawings from Children in Special Populations 67

4 Production and Comprehension of Representational Drawing 95

5 Children’s Understanding of the Dual Nature of Pictures 127

6 Drawings as Measures of Internal Representations 153

7 Drawings as Assessment Tools: Intelligence, Personality and Emotionality 180

8 Drawing as Memory Aids 216

9 Cultural Influences on Children’s Drawings 247

10 The Education of Drawing 272

11 Future Directions 314

Further Reading 330

References 331

Author Index 362

Subject Index 371

Plates appear between pages 184 and 185

"Children's drawing is a fascinating topic with a wide-ranging appeal, and this well-written and well-informed book will be very useful to students and researchers of child development and art education, as well as being accessible to the general reader. In ten clearly laid out chapters Richard Jolley gives an up-to-date overview of some of the debates in the field, an overview amply supported by research findings. In a further and final chapter he suggests “future directions” which, I'm sure, will provide food for thought for many of the up-and-coming generation of researchers."
–Dr Maureen Cox, Emeritus Reader, Department of Psychology, University of York

"A long time in the making, this book was well worth waiting for. It is unusual in the range of topics it covers and the importance it accords to the field. It can serve both as an introduction for new readers and as a resource for established researchers, which is extraordinarily hard to bring off. This is because the author is clearly conducting a dialogue with the reader throughout, in a gracefully styled stream of writing."
–Norman Freeman, Emeritus Professor and Senior Research Fellow, Cognitive Development, University of Bristol

"Psychologist Richard Jolley takes the reader on a fascinating journey, using children’s drawings and their understanding of pictures as a way to understand children’s minds. This book will enlighten researchers, clinicians, educators, and parents – anyone who wants to understand why children draw in the sometimes odd, almost always charming, way that they do."
–Ellen Winner, Professor of Psychology, Boston College, and Senior Research Associate, Project Zero, Harvard University

Richard P. Jolley is Senior Lecturer in the Psychology department at Staffordshire University, UK. In the 13 years since completing his PhD in children's making and understanding of expressive pictures he has broadened his research interests in the topic of "children and pictures," taking a variety of perspectives including developmental, cognitive, clinical, educational, aesthetic, and cross-cultural. In Children and Pictures, Richard P. Jolley critiques both the historical and contemporary studies conducted in the field of children's making and understanding of pictures.

Some highlights of Children and Pictures are:

• What develops, and why, in children's representational and expressive drawing, both in typical, atypical, and cross-cultural populations.
• The developing relationship between production and comprehension of pictures.
• Children's understanding of pictures as symbolic representations.
• Practical and applied uses of drawings, particularly in clinical and legal settings.
• Diverse educational practices of teaching drawing across the world.

Presenting up-to-date research and pointing towards future topics of study, Children and Pictures brings the study of children's drawings into mainstream child development studies. This is an edifying resource for students, researchers, practitioners, parents, artists, and educators in the field.

"Children's drawing is a fascinating topic with a wide-ranging appeal, and this well-written and well-informed book will be very useful to students and researchers of child development and art education, as well as being accessible to the general reader. In ten clearly laid out chapters Richard Jolley gives an up-to-date overview of some of the debates in the field, an overview amply supported by research findings. In a further and final chapter he suggests “future directions” which, I'm sure, will provide food for thought for many of the up-and-coming generation of researchers."
–Dr Maureen Cox, Emeritus Reader, Department of Psychology, University of York

"A long time in the making, this book was well worth waiting for. It is unusual in the range of topics it covers and the importance it accords to the field. It can serve both as an introduction for new readers and as a resource for established researchers, which is extraordinarily hard to bring off. This is because the author is clearly conducting a dialogue with the reader throughout, in a gracefully styled stream of writing."
–Norman Freeman, Emeritus Professor and Senior Research Fellow, Cognitive Development, University of Bristol

"Psychologist Richard Jolley takes the reader on a fascinating journey, using children’s drawings and their understanding of pictures as a way to understand children’s minds. This book will enlighten researchers, clinicians, educators, and parents – anyone who wants to understand why children draw in the sometimes odd, almost always charming, way that they do."
–Ellen Winner, Professor of Psychology, Boston College, and Senior Research Associate, Project Zero, Harvard University