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Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

Primary education

kids drawings of people without arms- mean anything??

31 replies

Bertolli · 25/02/2009 21:20

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Lilyloo · 25/02/2009 21:21

How old are they ?

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MissisBoot · 25/02/2009 21:21

they forgot to draw them on?

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MayorNaze · 25/02/2009 21:21

have they been watching beebies? dd2 keeps hiding her arm up her sleeve and saying "me am beebies lady."

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MissisBoot · 25/02/2009 21:22

sorry - just saw this was in education rather than chat

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Mutt · 25/02/2009 21:22

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misdee · 25/02/2009 21:24

how old?

i didnt have legs for ages in dd's pictures.

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NormaLeighLucid · 25/02/2009 21:28

My DD (4) up until about 2 months ago always drew my boobs and ahem other bits so what does that mean?

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Bertolli · 25/02/2009 21:28

LL- nearly 5 years old. And yes, just no arms on bodies but everything else is.

MB- no no, should have put it in chat really!

Mutt- yes this is what came up when i googled, but this is just not the case here..

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Mutt · 25/02/2009 21:31

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Lilyloo · 25/02/2009 21:33

dd just turned 4 we have no middle just a head with legs , occasionally arms but always long curly hair
Are you seriously worried ?

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Bertolli · 25/02/2009 21:38

Yeah, i think you're right about reading too much into stuff sometimes.

It only caught my attention because a friend of mines child is seeing a child psychologist and she was saying that they had noticed she drew people without arms and was sure it was significant..

I later glanced at a drawing of our family on the fridge and noticed there were no arms on any of us!!!!

Then i checked out his other pictures and sure enough, no arms. Wierd how i hadn't noticed, eh??!

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MissisBoot · 25/02/2009 21:43

Agree its easy to read into things.

DD went through a phase of putting magnets over her face on pictures on the fridge. In my head I was worried about self esteem issues - in reality she was probably just seeing if the magnet shape covered the shape of her head

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Bertolli · 25/02/2009 21:43

No, I'm not worried really. Just curious i suppose..

One frightening thing i read in a piece on case studies was no arms plus willy/ bits can= sexual abuse

However, this is surely not the case here. The only people he has ever stayed with away from me are grandparents.

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Bertolli · 25/02/2009 21:46

I need to get a grip and a good nights sleep i think.
And maybe get a life

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tiggerlovestobounce · 25/02/2009 21:57

I think that no arms is a developmental stage that children go through when learning to draw, a bit like faithfully drwaing a belly button on everyone they draw (My kids did that anyway ).

I think that the bit about no arms + genitalia suggesting abouse is that it would be out of keeping developmentally to be at the stage of missing out the arms, yet to be aware enough of genitalia to put that in. I dont think no arms alone would have the same potential significance.

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Bertolli · 25/02/2009 22:03

Hi tigger, that's the thing, he does draw in willies!

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MollieO · 25/02/2009 22:16

I wouldn't worry. My ds is 4 and in reception. His class painted self portraits that were put up on display at the classblock entrance. Lots of them were really good and identifiable of the children who had painted them. One looked like something out of a horror film - my ds's! I was mortified when I first saw it and then proud - he obviously inherited his mum's rubbish painting skills! He bought it home today so I asked him what he had painted "It's me mummy, picking up a doughnut!"

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tiggerlovestobounce · 25/02/2009 22:19

Oh
Are you sure it is a willie and not just a misplaced arm?
When my DD2 was that age she used to draw everyone with a single, long hair coming out of their head, and curling around the page. Its fascinating how their drawing skills develop isnt it.

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Bertolli · 25/02/2009 22:22

lol at misplaced arm!

Yeah, they are utterly fascinating, these little people of ours

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skramble · 25/02/2009 22:29

Its totally normal, its baby logic, if the arms are not important to the picture they just don't draw them, if they were doing somthing in the picture like switching on a light or holding a ball an arm will appear. They only draw legs as they are holding our bums off the ground .

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ingles2 · 25/02/2009 22:35

I'm sure it's not important your lack of arms
I can remember ds1's nursery being very concerned for a while as he would only draw in black crayon! That'll be because it makes the strongest mark then, not because he is depressed!
Anway, his drawings were perfect as a tiny tot, everything in it's right place etc, now he's 9 I can tell you he doesn't have an ounce of creativity or imagination
.. ds2 on the other hand, square heads, triangular bodies, 3 legs in some cases is the most creative soul you could ever meet and still does wonderful drawings full of character and personality even if they aren't accurate.