Self-Drawing as a Gauge of Perceptual-Motor Skill

Abstract

The purpose of this study were to examine alternative systems for scoring children's self-drawings and to explore the relationship between children's self-drawings and to explore the relationship between children's perceptual motor% performance abilities and their figure drawing skills. Thirty-two preschoolers were administered two perceptual-motor tests, a general gauge of verbal intelligence, and a self-drawing test. Self-drawings were scored using three different systems: the Goodenough-Harris (G-H) Draw-a-Man or Draw-a-Women, a 37-item scoring, and a 3-item scoring procedure. The three sets of self-drawing scores, which significantly correlated with one another, did not correlate with Verbal intelligence but did significantly correlate with the Test of Visual Motor Skill. Only scores obtained with the longer G-H procedure correlated with the Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration. Results suggest that self-drawings may be more accurately used as a screening of perceptual-motor functions than as a general gauge of intelligence. In addition, brief alternatives to the common, but lengthy, G-H procedure are suggested for informal scoring of preschoolers' figure drawings.