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Analyses compared age, gender, and demographic factors, showing second graders used more detail, color, and space, while fourth graders scored higher on congruence with developmental stages.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/a-normative-study-of-childrens-drawings-preliminary-research-findings/592253/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/a-normative-study-of-childrens-drawings-preliminary-research-findings/592253.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"Grenda","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-30","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",8,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"What is the main goal of the study?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"To establish contemporary normative data for children’s drawings, particularly Human Figure Drawings, for children living in the United States.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"How were the drawings assessed in the study?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"Each participant created a Human Figure Drawing scored using five modified Formal Elements Art Therapy Scales (FEATS).",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"What differences did the study find between second graders and fourth graders?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"Second graders included more details and used significantly more color and space, while fourth graders scored higher on congruence with Lowenfeld’s drawing development stages.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},592253,1792172448,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,88,92,96,101,106,111,114,119,122,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":85,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":89,"show_sort_weight":90,"slug":91},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":93,"show_sort_weight":94,"slug":95},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":97,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":98,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":102,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":103,"show_sort_weight":104,"slug":105},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":107,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":108,"show_sort_weight":109,"slug":110},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":55,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},30,"research-report",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":121},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":125},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":97,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":131},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":55,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":55,"language":139,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":143,"read_time":117,"preview_page_count":4},7971474921005,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_29158cc5080c5b710cf443261637dec0","A rticles  \nA Normative Study of Children’s Drawings: Preliminary Research Findings  \nSarah P. Deaver, Norfolk, VA  \nAbstract  \nThis paper describes methodology, data analysis, and initial results of a research study with the long-term goal of establishing contemporary normative data on drawings from children living in the United States. The pool of participants was composed of 316 fourth graders (mean age 9.69 years) and 151 secondgraders (mean age 7.56years) who each created a Human Figure Drawing (HFD) that was scored on five modified Formal Elements Art Therapy Scales (FEATS) (Gantt & Tabone, 1998). Data were analyzed along several dimensions: age, gender, ethnic group, and mean scores on each of the five scales. Second graders included more details and used significantly more color and space than the fourth graders. Fourth graders scored significantly higher on the scale measuring congruence with Lowenfeld’s stages of drawing development. There was a significant difference between boys’ and girls’mean scores on one scale only, with girls using color more realistically than boys. There was no significant main effect for ethnicity (all p values > .01).  \nIntroduction  \nIn art therapy, children’s drawings of people are of interest not only as a focus of the therapy process, but also because they are often used in assessment and diagnosis. In both assessment and diagnosis, art therapists rely primarily upon Victor Lowenfeld’s 1947 scheme for categorizing children’s artwork into developmental stages and for understanding what is “normal” or expected in children’s drawings at specific ages. Lowenfeld, an art educator, conceived a stage theory of children’s drawing development that corresponds approximately with Piaget’s the  \nEditor’s note: Sarah Deaver, MS, MS Ed, ATR-BC is Associate Professor and Research Director, Graduate Art Therapy Program, Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk, VA. Funded by the Norfolk Foundation, the results of this study were presented in a paper at the 2005 Annual Conference of the American Art Therapy Association. Correspondence concerning this article should be sent to [deaversp@evms.edu](deaversp@evms.edu) The author thanks David Elkins, MS, and Richard Handel, PhD, for their expertise with statistical analysis, and Matthew Bernier, ATR-BC, and Kay Stovall, ATR-BC, for their scholarly contributions.  \nories of child cognitive development (Lowenfeld, 1947; Malchiodi, 1998; Piaget & Inhelder, 1971) . Lowenfeld’s theory embodied his conviction that artwork produced by children manifested all aspects of their growth including psychological, cognitive, social, and physical development (Lowenfeld, 1947; Lowenfeld & Brittain, 1987) .  \nIn terms of specific diagnoses, Human Figure Drawings (HFDs) have been studied either through the widely used “global impression” method (Lally, 2001, p. 137) or though the matching method (Groth-Marnat, 1999) . In the global impression method, assessors use their “phenomenological experience of the drawing, affective or visceral reactions to it, and relatively loosely reined impressions and associations” to interpret the meaning of an HFD (Scribner & Handler, 1987, p. 112) . Using this approach, art therapists call upon their knowledge of human psychological development, psychopathology, and children’s drawing development; their own in-depth artmaking experience; and knowledge of art-based projective assessment techniques to arrive at an understanding of a child based not only on the child’s artwork but also upon the therapists’ clinical “sense” of the child. In contrast, in the matching method, assessors match specific drawing details (or combinations of details) with particular diagnoses or personality characteristics. Guides such as those written by Buck (1948), Jolles (1986), Machover (1949), and Ogden (1996) provide lists that might be used with the matching method; however, these guides are largely compendia of case studies and small researched-based studies that","cbCaifyClX9RbKOP","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaifyClX9RbKOP","pdf",355197,"English","# Abstract\n# Introduction\n# Large Scale Studies of Children’s Art","[{\"question\":\"What is the main goal of the study?\",\"answer\":\"To establish contemporary normative data for children’s drawings, particularly Human Figure Drawings, for children living in the United States.\"},{\"question\":\"How were the drawings assessed in the study?\",\"answer\":\"Each participant created a Human Figure Drawing scored using five modified Formal Elements Art Therapy Scales (FEATS).\"},{\"question\":\"What differences did the study find between second graders and fourth graders?\",\"answer\":\"Second graders included more details and used significantly more color and space, while fourth graders scored higher on congruence with Lowenfeld’s drawing development stages.\"}]","A Normative Study of Children’s Drawings - Preliminary Research Findings | PDF",1792074168]