What was strange about the picture of her family, my Dd drew for the Dr

[Notthegoldenhourthebluehour]

Currently having issues with Dd, 6, suspected Pans/pandas, trying to establish if recent changes in behaviour could be down to having been ill or a trigger somehow resulting in psychological problems. Amongst many other things, the Dr asked Dd to draw a picture of our family. She did a normal, pretty average picture really. She drew me first, then her in the middle and Dh at the other side and our dog at the front sat down.
The Dr told me it was good she’d drawn herself in the middle but that he wanted to send a screenshot of her picture to a colleague
What can this mean? Any child psychologists here etc

*Our family

Sorry, the title sounds clumsy and not well written

Sorry I know I could Google but what's pans/pandas?

Yes you could google

Sometimes the level of detail can be used to measure the child's mental age.
Eg. A three year old might draw a circle with four lines out of it for a person. A ten year old would be expected to have much more detail - proper body, fingers ears etc

I think it called Good enough draw a man or something similar

Not a psychologist but it sounds perfectly normal to me.

If it doesn’t detail your thread too much, do you mind my asking what else the doctor is going eg ordering any investigations or anything? We’re having difficulties with our 6 year old DS which came on suddenly this year and I’ve also been thinking of approaching the doctor.

I think I draw like a three year old

Thanks. I've literally never ever heard of this which surprises me. Thanks for the reading!

@KnittingKnewbie Ah ok, that makes sense, I assumed it was to see family dynamics or something
He and I asked her to write her name too

@PolaroidPrincess Thank you 🙏 I’m sorry I don’t have the energy today to explain it all

Hi OP. I’m a child psychologist. I don’t think much could be taken from one piece of information such as a picture. They may have just been checking you were happy to share the info from the assessment, rather than that picture particularly.

@Rainallnight He has given us a longer course of antibiotics to try, to see if it is an infection and it gets rid of some symptoms 🤞
We’ll do blood tests in a few months most likely and he prescribed anti histamines for possible inflammation and valerian for anger issues and anxiety/ocd/intrusive thoughts.
He also recommended continuing with the child therapist we started with in case it’s purely psychological
Hope your son is ok

@Rustytoasty Thank you, but him mentioning it was good Dd drew herself in the middle, why is it? Just curious what a picture could show as we’re desperate to get to the bottom of things and help her
He also seemed interested that she drew me first and seemed positive about it, he asked a fair bit about our family situation

I hope you are ok OP! I wouldn’t read into this too much as wasn’t anything shocking that your child drew .However in general Asking a child to draw a picture can be used as an assessment tool in lots of different ways - so for example to check coordination, grip of hand, checking sensory issues- proprioception, how much weight child is applying to page and also the complexity and speed they are drawing. Also what the child draws can be used to assess ( to some degree) the feelings/ emotions of the child however in your case your child seemed to draw a fairly typical drawing so I wouldn’t worry about that .
I hope you get some help and support for yourself and child and see some improvements. Have experienced with pandas after an infection that came on quickly, was very frightening for everyone and distressing for child however improved over time. Found that initially the GP hadn’t a clue what it was and only I was aware myself led to them taking it seriously .

But if it's answered here, instead of sparky comments, it mean other people don't have to Google.

How hard would it have been to post those instead?

What are PANS and PANDAS?
Introduction
PANS and PANDAS are conditions that affect the brain. People with PANS or PANDAS experience a variety of symptoms ranging from mental health symptoms to changes in behaviour and difficulties with movement.

@Notthegoldenhourthebluehour are you seeing the psychologist again soon? Maybe they could talk it through with you and explain why they felt certain things about the picture to put your mind at rest? Could you ask to have a quick chat with them about it. I often get follow up emails / questions that I talk through with parents to make sure they understand the assessment and results.

@BrownBirdWelcomesWhiteWave but then you've posted something I don't think is helpful about the condition.

Not included what causes it or how it often presents (ticks, ND attributed behaviours that have come on suddenly).

@Dreamingofthishouse Thanks so much, that’s all really interesting, didn’t even think about some of the reasons he asked her to draw the picture.
So sorry you had to go through the same, it’s pure hell, is your child ok now, what helped them?
Yes, this is the third Dr I’ve seen, the first two didn’t know anything about it, he seems great though, we spent almost an hour with him

@RandomMess Yes, I think it’s far too complex to sum up in a few lines

I wouldn't have thought the position was surprising, I've seen hundreds (maybe thousands) of family drawings from KS1 children over the years, a huge proportion have the same layout! I suspect as has been said by others there were other elements they were looking at and recording ie the actual mark making.

It could also be that the picture she drew and how she’s positioned people gives him a sense of the closeness of the relationships in the family, e.g. that she’s drawn you first and positioned herself in the middle could suggest for instance that she feels safe and supported by her parents… just a guess!

@Rustytoasty This was just the Pediatric Dr, he asked if he could send a screenshot of the picture to his colleague (I’m assuming he/she is a child psychologist)
This was the picture…we all seem to have very long arms 😁

@Rustytoasty He said to email/message him next week to tell him if there are any changes in Dd after taking the antibiotics and that he’d report back after consulting with his colleague also

The most likely scenario by far is that part of the assessment process involves drawing a picture, but that the doctor you saw today doesn't feel confident that they have the ability to assess the drawing accurately as part of your child's assessment, and need someone more experienced in that area to help ie to say yes this is age appropriate.

> What can this mean?

Presumably it means they want a second opinion and the drawing now forms part of your child's medical notes so needs to be stored. Don't overthink it for now, if you can!

Edit: didn't see the other replies before I posted, but hope it all goes well

A divided camp of being in the middle. She feels part of the family or she likes to split her family up.
If a child draws on the outside of the adults they dont feel they are part of the family.