The Young Child's Pictorial Representation of the Human Figure

Abstract

This study investigated reasons for the omission of the torso typical in most young children's drawings of the human figure. Do they have an incomplete mental image of the human figure; if so will the torso be omitted from a manikin task too? As the head is normally drawn first, is the torso simply forgotten; if so will children include it if they are asked to draw the torso first? Eighty tadpole-drawers (aged between 2 years 7 months and 5 years) were randomly allocated to a drawing or a manikin condition; they were further subdivided into a head-first or torso-first condition. Significantly more children produced a conventional figure when they constructed a manikin compared with those who were asked to draw; the order of body parts (head-first vs torso-first) had no significant effect. These results suggest that young children omit the torso from their human figures because they have yet to devise a way of drawing it, perhaps because it is a relatively unimportant item; there is little evidence that they have simply forgotten it or that their mental model for the human figure is incomplete. RESUME Cette etude examine les raisons de l'omission du torse, typique dans les dessins de la figure humaine par les enfants d'age prescolaire. Ont-ils une image mentale incomplete de la figure humaine? Si c'est le cas, le torse sera-t-il omis des tâches de construction de personnages? La tête étant normalement dessinée en premier, est-ce que le torse est simplement oublié? Si c'est le cas, est-ce que les enfants l'incluront si on leur demande de dessiner le torse en premier? Quatre-vingts enfants au stade du têtard (entre 2 ans 7 mois et 5 ans) ont ete répartis au hasard entre le dessin ou la construction; Us ont ete encore divisés en tete-d'abord ou torse-d'abord. Un nombre considérablement plus élevé d'enfants a produit une figure traditionnelle lorsqu'ils ont construit un personnage que ceux qui ont eu a dessiner. L'ordre des parties du corps (tete-d'abord ou torse-d'abord) n'a pas eu d'effet significatif. Ces résultats suggèrent que les jeunes enfants omettent le torse de leurs figures humaines parce qu'ils n'ont pas encore trouvé une façon de le dessiner, peut-être parce qu'il est relativement 0966-9760/98/010031-8 ©1998 Carfax Publishing Ltd Downloaded by [141.214.17.222] at 05:04 02 November 2014 32 M. V. Cox & S. Mason peu important. Les résultats ne concluent pas qu'ils l'ont simplement oublié ou que leur modèle mental de la figure humaine est incomplet. RESUMEN Este estudio investigó las razones por las que la mayoría de los niños de edad preescolar omite el tipico torso del cuerpo humano en sus dibujos. ¿Tienen los niños una imagen metal incompleta del cuerpo humano? Si es así, ¿también omitirán el torso al montar las piezas de una figura humana? Como normalmente se dibuja la cabeza primero, ¿es que simplemente se olvidan del torso? Si es asi, ¿lo inclurían si se les pidiera que dibujasen el torso primero? Ochenta niños que dibujaron unos renacuajos (de edades entre los 2 anos 7 meses y 5 años) fueron asignados...

Conocimientos sobre dibujo, escritura y numerales en la producción gráfica materno-infantil, Argentina

“…A los 4 años predominó la producción infantil independiente de dibujos, en su mayoría de nivel convencional. Este resultado estaría relacionado con el dominio progresivo de esta habilidad gráfica, específicamente en la producción de la figura humana: entre los 3 y 4 años se produce una transición desde representaciones emergentes como el renacuajo, hacia una figura convencional con el torso diferenciado de la cabeza, pasando en ocasiones por figuras transicionales (Cox & Mason, 1998;Winner, 2006).…”

Preschool Children's Perceptions of Body Size Through Trait Associations and Drawings

“…According to Foley and Mullis (2008), children at the y<?,ungest stage of drawing development will typically draw the "tadpole" figure for a human, which is often a large circle or oval representing the head and body. Children around the age of 4-or 5-years-old usually begin 1 to develop their "tadpole" drawing, often by drawing lines to"represent arms and legs (Cox & Mason, 1998). The most important detail regarding Ryan and Trevor's tadpole drawings is that .…”

Development in the Arts: Drawing and Music

“…When given global instructions (draw a person), 3-to 5-year-olds produced tad- poles, but when given more specific instructions (e.g., draw a person with a tummy, with a flower), these same children were able to add a torso and an arm (Golomb, 1981(Golomb, , 2004. And when children who spontaneously draw tadpoles were asked to construct a person out of cut out pieces of paper such as circles and rectangles, they often included a torso, showing that they are aware of the torso but just did not know how to include it in their spontaneous drawings (see also Bassett, 1977;Cox & Mason, 1998). Golomb (2004, p. 55) reports cases in which tadpole drawers scrutinized their drawings and criticized them, saying, for example, " The arms are wrong!…”