I’m pretty sure all my kids’ intellects are above average. Aren’t everyone’s children ‘advanced’? And now a recent study assessing children’s drawings proves my point. I mean check out the image above that one of my kid’s recently drew. She is a genius I tell you.
Seriously though I’d hate to think what researchers would say about some of my children’s drawings, although mostly they are of ponies and rainbows so I’m not sure what that says about them. However, I do see how there could be some correlation between drawing and intellect and now there’s proof.
The Draw-a-Child Test
Researchers from the UK’s King College asked 7,753 pairs of twins to draw a picture of a child. The drawings were then scored by the number of features such as the head, legs, hands and feet, included in the drawing. The children were then asked to complete intelligence tests at age four and 14. It was found that there was a moderately strong link between higher drawing scores when they were kids and their intelligence tests done 10 years later.
Dr Rosalind Arden, of King’s College’s Institute of Psychiatry, told the BBC that the Draw-a-Child test, devised in the 1920s, has long been used to assess children’s intelligence. “This capacity to reproduce figures is a uniquely human ability and a sign of cognitive ability, in a similar way to writing, which transformed the human species’ ability to store information, and build a civilisation,” she said.
She said it was no surprise the test results correlated with the verbal and non-verbal intelligence tests taken at age four, but what was of interest was how relevant it was a decade on.”The correlation is moderate, so our findings are interesting, but it does not mean that parents should worry if their child draws badly. Drawing ability does not determine intelligence, there are countless factors, both genetic and environmental, which affect intelligence in later life.”
I’m sure there’s some parents sighing with relief that although the drawing’s scores and intellect scores were reflective of each other, they were not conclusive indicators of if your child was smart or not. In some cases, kids don’t even like to draw so it would be tricky to use drawing as a marker. And on the flip-side, I’m sure there’s some kids that draw so much, they have little time for learning.
What do our kid’s drawings reveal?
What’s hilarious is when you look at your kid’s drawings and you have to sneakily ask them what it is, before praising them. You know like: “I love that drawing of a pig you did,” I say. “That’s not a pig it’s you”,” says child. “Oh, well, don’t I look positively awesome”,” I say, grimacing.
Sometimes drawings are more of a scary insight into what is actually going on inside their head and it can be a little troubling or hilarious. And then there’s the drawings which, to be honest, are frankly terrible and they insist you stick them up on the fridge.
And don’t even get me started on attempts to dispose of said drawings. It’s like the kids have an inbuilt alarm that goes off when you try and throw anything away. What is with that? Don’t they realise that there are only so many drawings of legless bodies or coloured scribbles that can fit in your cupboard?
Here are some drawings done by my kids and other members of the Kidspot team’s kids. I’m not so sure what they say about their intellect, but they sure are cute:
Why the Kidspot team are now a bit worried about our kids
What could be cuter than a “flick” of bunnies? Wrong! Haven’t you seen Donnie Darko?
What do you think your kid’s drawings say about their intelligence?
More from Kidspot:
- 12 inappropriate kid’s drawing that will make you giggle
- This creative dad does something very cool with his kids’ drawings
- The funniest kid-written note of all time