Children's diachronic thinking in relation to developmental changes in their drawings of the human figure

The current human figure drawings of 40 5-year-olds and 40 7-year-olds were compared with their figures drawn as if they were and 9 years old. The figures were examined for changes in height, detail and schema complexity. When projecting backwards in time, 5-year-olds made quantitative and some made qualitative changes. When projecting forwards in time, however, they made only quantitative changes and it is only at age 7 that children begin to make qualitative changes. In a second task, the children were asked to allocate drawings of varying complexity to artists of different ages. Whereas most 5-year-olds allocated a ready-drawn tadpole figure to an appropriately aged drawer, they were not able to allocate more complex figures appropriately. In contrast, 7-year-olds were quite adept at this task.