The importance of drawing stick men

[emkana]

I was telling a friend today how dd1 (3) has drawn a lovely picture of the whole family in playgroup - all as stick men, which she's only just started doing. I'm the biggest and roundest in the picture by the way .
My friend was then saying that her dd never did stick men, making it sound as if her dd was somehow "better" for it. Was annoyed! Could be though that she just doesn't remember it - her dd is 5. Isn't it true that all children go through this stage, and that it has some importance?

I'm sure they do - isn't it one of the first signs they are aware of different parts of the body? I remember studying child development and seeing that the first stage is a drawing of a circle with two lines out of it for legs. I thought well - I don't remember ever drawing something like that, I'd be worried the child had a strange concept of a body. However, when I had my boys, the first drawings they did of 'people' were like that! It was a very short phase and they moved onto stick men, but I was quite amused that the books were right and someone somewhere had obviously studied this subject very carefully, so they must place some importance on it.

apparently drawing stick men is a sign of intelligence

Thanks debra.
Actually that's what I meant - dd1 draws a circle with lines sticking out for arms and legs. I thought that was called stick men (I'm German, got the words wrong there.)
Anybody else know anything about this?

oh wow i didn't know all this,ds 6 draws all his medieval soldiers like stick men,dd at 3 did the circle with 2 lines for arms and two for legs,now at 4 she does stick men but with huge heads

all sounds like I remember. They start with a circle which just has sticks for legs, then as they become more away they add the arms, the odd thing is that the circle has a face so the body is missing, so the next step is when a body appears, usually in the form of a stick. I can't remember the relevant ages but I still have all my books if you really want me to look it up!

crumbs - just had a quick look and there was once a 'draw a man' test to assess cognitive levels, but apparently the way in which children progress with drawing is consistent within cultures to a surprising degree but actually varies quite considerably across different cultures. There is pages of stuff about children's drawings!

Thanks debra.
Don't worry, I don't expect you to read it all!

the one with the circle including a face and lines coming from it is referred to as a tadpole drawing. Paget, Claire Golomb and Wilson and Wilson are mentioned as investigating drawing skills in connection with cognitive development.

and on that note, I'm getting off cos my hubby is on his way home after 7 wks away!!!!!!!!!!

debra64, what about bellybuttons? All my DS1's (5.5) drawings have large stomachs and bellybuttons, have done for a while but now he is saying that the bellybutton is a mistake but he still draws it and then covers it over with colour.

I always thought the bellybutton thing was hillarious I presume it's not just my DS1 that does this?

I once heard a scare story about a competitive pre-school which asked toddlers to draw a person and gave extra points for fingers, and hair ... debra, maybe there's child psychology basis for that?

My DS2(3) has drawn huge belly buttons ever since he did his first figure. I am actually a bit worried it might mean he is self-conscious about his body as he does have a prominent," sticky out" tummy button. I'd be interested to know if other children draw any exaggerated details and if anyone thinks it means anything.

Yes, its definitely, a developmental stage. Remember doing lots of theory stuff about this during teacher training.

There's a book called "What Did I Write?" (can't remember author, she's Australian and did a lot of work researching how children learn to write) that explains the stages of children's mark-making, drawing and writing.

Marie M Clay is the author. I've still got the book somewhere as it has such lovely drawings by children (plenty of stick men with a big circle in the middle for the body and face).

Need to correct myself slightly - she's from New Zealand.

All these children are very intelligent. They draw representations of people. That is a sophisticated skill.

There are well-recognised stages of development (for example a head with arms and legs coming out of it gives way to a separate head and body with arms and legs coming out of the body) and some children skip some stages.

They concentrate on what's important in their lives too. My daughter gave me earrings before she gave me a body as you can see here if you enter Mummy into the search box.

Yes there are definite stages for stick men. I can't remember all of it but it comes to mind that 4 year olds generally do wild hair and a belly button! There is probably a site with more information on it if you are interested.

i can't remember where we used it from, but was at a very competitive british school in Riyadh a couple of years ago, and in reception, we gave the children the task of drawing themselves, or a family member to assess their level of development. very interesting, but all perfectly normal. are very definite stages they go through, adding more detail as they grow up. yes lots drew belly buttons. i love the drawings where they do a big circle with a face on and legs and arms sticking out everywhere. then there's the huge round hands with fingers sticking out everywhere....bless.

emkana we called them tadpole people it is a normal stage of development

my dn (3.5) did some stick figures recently and my dsister said the kindy teacher was most impressed and that he was advanced for his age.

I still do stick men (only when doodling, not as a special piece of art for my mummy!) and I'm 22 so don't think you can use that on its own to judge maturity!!! (either that or I'm not as mature as a 5-yr old, hmmmmmm)

I have been pondering this recently. My DS (5 in November) doesn't really like drawing that much. He always wants me to do something for him to copy (which I try to discourage) because when he draws something it doesn't look like he wants it to look and then scribbles over it as he says it isn't what he wanted (I am sure a psychologist would have a field day with that!).
Anyway, the other day I managed to get him to draw a picture of 'Who lives in our house' and tried to dredge up what I remember from Teacher Training.
He has clearly missed out the tadpole stage as all 4 characters had heads and bodies and arms and legs as well as fingers and toes.
He drew DH first ... big, took up most of the left hand side of the page ... no clothes (Daddy is in the bath) but with a belly button ... 'little hair' (DH is follically challenged ) very carefully drawn with a big smile.
Next came DD ... next to DH but 'teeny weeny small' ... with a fat tummy and a big smile. Then came me, for some reason wearing a rabbit hat (?). He then drew a circle around the three of us.
Finally he drew himself ... happy, smiling with a soccer ball but OUT of the circle ... I wonder what that means?

PS All of us had belly buttons.