Painting is an important communication channel for children, apart from an entertainment and activity. Children directly reflect their feelings and thoughts about what is going on in the outside world and around them to their paintings. Pictures, which constitute a simple and effective means of expression for them, also constitute important data for psychological evaluations. At the same time, with picture analysis, it is possible to get much clearer information about cognitive, developmental and emotional processes than can be obtained by talking to a child. For this reason, picture analysis should be included during psychological evaluations, and experts should be consulted when abnormal figures and themes are encountered by obtaining basic information about children's drawings by parents.
Why is Child Painting Important?
Painting activity for children It is a non-verbal language. It is a much easier way to express feelings and thoughts through painting for children who have not yet reached sufficient competence in verbal skills developmentally. More than an activity for children, pictures reflect both the way of thinking and the content of their thoughts. Apart from being young, it is possible to recognize the inner world to a certain extent through picture analysis in children who have difficulty in communicating verbally in terms of their personal characteristics. Children prefer painting as a way of explaining their complex world, which they try to organize themselves. These pictures also contain indicators of mental development. Although the drawings are generally the way of representing something in the children's world, it should be known that in some cases there may be patterns or scribbles that do not have any representational quality or purpose. In the pictures, it is possible to find clues about the problems of children with other children or adults around them and the way they solve these problems. At the same time, because it is a fun and interesting activity, painting is a behavior that children are curious about and want to do again and again. Therefore, by evaluating the large number of drawings together, it is possible to detect repetitive elements and the reliability in image analysis increases significantly. Not all this Children's drawings are very valuable resources for recognizing children and making psychological analysis and constitute an important diagnostic tool in psychiatry.
Analysis of Children's Pictures, Colors and Figures
In the analysis of children's drawings, from lines to sizes, from shapes. It is possible to benefit from a large number of markers up to colors. Evaluation of these according to the child's age and mental health status is very important for an accurate analysis. For this reason, the analysis of children's drawings must be carried out by experts trained in this field. Drawings made by children aged 1-4 are usually in the form of simple doodles. These are mostly random and playful drawings that include lines and colors. Children aged 4-7 fall into the pre-schema group in picture analysis. When these children are asked to draw a human, they usually form a simple human figure consisting of a round head and feet. Around the age of four, they begin to draw the figure with the head, arms and legs, which is called stickman. With the advancement of age, the development of the child's imagination and hand skills is also reflected in the pictures. For example, a child who draws a house will begin to draw it in different ways.
By the age of six, children's drawings begin to include a subject. The child who draws his picture within the framework of a subject can also explain his picture verbally. After this stage, certain factors such as the size of the picture, the exaggerated or very small drawings used, and the colors used predominantly give important clues about the inner world of the child. Exaggeratedly large images are often portrayed by children who are aggressive and have poor self-control. At the same time, uncontrolled use of the entire page can be found in hyperactive children. Drawings as small as a few centimeters are often seen in children who are timid, shy and have low self-esteem. For them, the feeling of insecurity is symbolized by small dimensions. Rarely, however, some children with low self-esteem may draw exaggeratedly large pictures while expressing their desire to be stronger, and similarly aggressive children may have low self-esteem. Small size images can be found. In order to make a correct interpretation, it is beneficial to evaluate verbal evaluations together with them. It can be used to interpret the inner world of the child, taking into account the regions where the differences exist. In addition, colors are also important tools in the interpretation of the picture. For example, happy feelings are usually represented with yellow tones, sadness with brown, angry and aggressive attitudes with red, feelings of compatibility and affection with colors such as pink, orange, yellow, and feelings of pressure and strain are represented by cold tones such as black, blue, and green. However, it should be known that children use their favorite colors in their paintings, regardless of their emotions. Since it is possible for the child to prefer certain colors due to his personal tastes, it would not be correct to evaluate these color uses as any positive or negative meaning.
Family Phenomenon and Social Relations in Children's Paintings
It is a known fact since the 1930s that children contain important markers for their personalities and the problems they experience in their inner world. In these paintings, the feelings generally felt towards parents and siblings and the relationships between family members are often reflected. The analysis of symbols, lines and colors in these paintings has become much more common in recent years, as they contain feelings and thoughts about the family environment, which has a great place in understanding child psychology. Since family pictures contain more than one human figure, the differences between the figures can be used effectively to understand the feelings of the people. Children can draw family members in different sizes and in different places, and they can put physical barriers between them. In particular, tendencies such as imprisoning the individuals in the picture and positioning themselves away from this person may mean that the child's feelings of protection and escape are depicted. The child feels different and isolated from the family. If he feels less valued than his siblings, he may place himself in the picture far from the family. On the other hand, in the family pictures of children who are happy and in harmony with their families, it is seen that the mother, father and siblings are drawn closely, equally and in detail. A non-family person whom the child feels very close to may be included in the family picture. In addition, children who have family problems may resist drawing family pictures. Apart from all these, there are many elements that can be used in the analysis of children's pictures, from the ordering of the individuals from left to right in the family picture, the distances between the individuals, whether the individuals look towards each other or not, and the symbols such as rain and sun in the picture. It is possible to evaluate the child psychologically effectively by evaluating them comparatively between different pictures by expert psychotherapists. Combining the obtained information with the information obtained from the child through verbal communication will increase the effectiveness of the psychological evaluation and enable the solutions to the problems to be determined in a more planned way.
You also want your child's pictures to be analyzed psychologically. If you want to consult experts about abnormal elements, you can apply to psychiatrists and psychologists.
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