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Primary education

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

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Original poster

drawing people "properly" - important?

26 replies

kissingfrogs · 05/04/2010 22:34

dd2s teacher mentioned something about the importance of drawing people properly (head, body, arms, legs).
Dd2 (4.8) always draws people as a head with legs & arms, she just doesn't "get" the body thing even though I've spent time encouraging her.
Is there some sort of developmental relevance to "proper" drawing of people? Surely it's just a childish thing to draw as you please?

OP posts:

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piprabbit · 05/04/2010 22:47

Moving from drawing people as a circle with legs and arms, to drawing people with seperate heads and bodies is definitely a recognised stage in child development.

You might find this item interesting.

As to ages when these changes happen, I think your DD is quite normal for her age. As usualy, all children are different and will move through these phases in their own time and at their own pace.

thisisyesterday · 05/04/2010 22:51

my ds1 is 5 and a bit and has only just started drawing people at all! they do have a body, but he only draws stick people (sometimes with a circle for a tummy)

i think once when i was sitting with him we were talking about drawing different things and it got onto people and i said lets draw a head, then a tummy... otherwise where will the arms and legs join onto? and i got up and showed him that my arms and legs are joined onto my tummy/body.... that seemed to get it fo him

corriefan · 05/04/2010 22:56

There is also an IQ test based on the detail given in drawing people:{{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draw-A-Person_Test}}

corriefan · 05/04/2010 22:56

Sorry en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draw-A-Person_Test

mummyloveslucy · 05/04/2010 23:04

My 5 year old daughter draws a perons head with arms and legs sprouting from it, she draws two circles for the eyes, with two circles inside. Her mouth is a horizontal line. She sometimes does hair, and fingers and has just started doing eye lashes, but no body.

TrowelAndError · 05/04/2010 23:07

I remember being told (a very long time ago) that, at that stage, the child thinks that the shape they have drawn is the head and the body. If you ask them to draw in the belly button, they will draw it somewhere below the mouth.

I meant to try this when dd was still drawing these potato people, but sadly forgot.

mummyloveslucy · 05/04/2010 23:26

I'll try that with my daughter.

TrowelAndError · 06/04/2010 10:12

Let us know what happens!

tethersend · 06/04/2010 10:32

Children at this age draw what is important- ie, the head, face, expression, legs; they haven't really attached an importance to the torso yet.

I would always avoid a 'now draw the body, hands etc approach' in favour of drawing from observation. Why not just sit or stand in front of your DD and ask her to draw what she sees? Much better in terms of artistic development.

So much time is spent later in life 'unlearning' what you have been taught at primary level; a head goes like this, a nose is a triangle etc in order to really draw what you see.

The fact that the teacher has a notion of drawing 'properly' tells me she is not an art specialist. I would completely ignore her advice.

Original poster

kissingfrogs · 06/04/2010 15:25

Thanks all.
Tether: I like your advice. Dd2 can carry on with her "potato people" until she decides - I'm all for allowing individual creative spirit.

Piprabbit's link looks interesting (going to read in full in a mo).

OP posts:

MrsWeasley · 06/04/2010 15:37

In my chidlrens school they are "taught" to draw people in year 3 (so age 7-8). They have to draw people surfing or skiing. The teacher showed them how to draw a person, head-neck-shoulder-arms-hands-5 fingers etc etc

Your dd is very young I would say just let her enjoy drawing, the rest will come.

daisy243 · 06/04/2010 19:55

If your child is very good at drawing at this sort of age does it mean much?

mummyloveslucy · 06/04/2010 20:51

My daughter drew a picture of me today, She drew the head with arms and legs as usual. I asked her to draw a bellie button and she laughed. She then drew it below the nose but above the mouth. I'm really not sure what@s going on in that head of hers.

Effjay · 06/04/2010 21:00

My mum used to be a primary school teacher. She's mentioned this to me several times. She used to assess children who may require additional learning support and this is one of the tasks she gave them. She would then award points for the accuracy of the picture i.e. is there two parts to the arm, is there fingers, etc. She has said that it is quite an accurate predictor of intelligence in the early years.

nailonthehead · 06/04/2010 22:01

From my experience with my dd in reception she was at a head with sprouting arms and legs stage while lots of others were drawing much more lifelike people.
I think it is developmental as she was one of the younger ones in the year but not particularly an predictor of later intelligence in case the observations above worry you.DD is in the top 5% of her large year group several years later but still isn't that great at drawing.
She just has never been a sit down and draw girl but is still bright!

mrz · 07/04/2010 10:03

aaalab.stanford.edu/child_development/dev_drawing.html

www.users.totalise.co.uk/~kbroom/Lectures/children.htm www.learningdesign.com/Portfolio/DrawDev/kiddrawing.html

Portoeufino · 07/04/2010 10:39

My dd (aged 4) drew a picture of Daddy. It had a head, body, arms, legs, plus ears and a huge penis! . I'm not sure what this says about her!

The teaching assistant and I had a bloody good giggle though, as she pinned it on the door of the classroom for the other parents to admire

mummyloveslucy · 07/04/2010 16:17

My daughter did that this morning funnily enough, she drew Daddy with something growning out of his chin. I asked her what it was and she said laughing "His boy bit"

Portoeufino · 07/04/2010 18:50

Dh was mortified ! I told him at least she didn't draw a titchy one lol. I'm sure he went up a notch in the eyes of the other mothers.....

PaintPod · 07/04/2010 18:53

i nver progressed past stick people and it never did me any harm. 45 now and has never been a barrier in my life - yet

Just to put another side into perspective here.

mathanxiety · 07/04/2010 20:26

Another article here on the subject. I think it's a shame the teacher doesn't seem to realise drawing is something that progresses in stages, and that she thinks 'proper' drawings are desirable. It's a process that shouldn't be hurried.

I personally find children's early artwork fascinating. Wondering if anyone knows of any literature about belly buttons in children's art? (Serious question btw)

Many thanks for the great links on this thread.

Portoeufino · 07/04/2010 20:47

dd does ears, noses and jewellery but has NEVER drawn a belly button. In fact tonight we read " how did I begin" and I pointed at hers to show where she was connected to mummy. It freaked her out and I wasn't allowed to touch it!

mrz · 07/04/2010 20:47

www.gwinnett.k12.ga.us/gcps-mainweb01.nsf/16DF1A5AE7EF8D72852575A80073E69C/${file}/InterpretingChildre n%27sHumanFigureDrawings.pdf

you might like Understanding children's drawings
By Cathy A. Malchiodi

Galena · 07/04/2010 21:39

We had to level children's artwork at school. How did we do this? By getting them to draw a person. The reason for this was because we had exemplars of what a person drawn by children at different National Curriculum levels would look like.

Maybe that's what happened here...

Builde · 08/04/2010 11:00

Children reach the development stage at different times.

My two are good drawers and their people have always had bodies. This isn't typical, though, and many children of 4 don't stick a body in.

I love the penis picture; we had cleavages for a while on all the princess pictures when my dd was about 4. She had watched too much Revolting Rhymes. (Her mother doesn't have a cleavage, as such.)

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