A descriptive study of spatial presentations in children's drawing

The first purpose of this study was to develop a preliminary instrument for delineation of spatial aspects in children's drawings which would provide reliable scoring and would be refined in further studies. The second purpose of the study was to utilize the instrument for scoring crayon drawings made by children in three age groups in order to ascertain the extent of each spatial criterion defined in the instrument in drawings by each age group. In addition, data was studied for the following: (1) significant increase or decrease in percentage of occurrence of each criterion between age groups (2) absence of spatial criteria in drawings made by different age groups (3) higher incidence of specific criteria in drawings by the second age group. The instrument developed for the study, which was named the Krieger Spatial Instrument (referred to in the study as the KSI-A), contained 103 criteria which described spatial aspects of children's drawings which have been suggested by the literature on spatial presentations in two-dimensional graphic art, studies of children's drawings and psychological studies of spatial development. Scoring procedures were developed for the instrument and an interscorer agreement among three scorers greater than 90% was attained. The drawing sample examined consisted of 470 drawings made by Texas children in 6 different elementary schools in the 1st, 3rd, and 5th grades and the drawings were collected in the 9th month of the school year. The mean ages for the three groups were 7.4, 9.3, and 11.3 years. One drawing from each student was obtained in response to the topic, "Playing on the Playground or in the School Gym". Data analysis involved use of chi square to test whether or not percentage differences (increases or decreases) on each criterion were significant (p<.05) between age groups. It was found that 2 criteria decreased significantly in drawings between groups one and two and 2 criteria increased significantly. Four criteria showed a significant percentage decrease between groups two and three and 7 criteria a significant increase. Ten criteria indicated a decrease between groups one and three which was significant, while 18 criteria showed a significant increase. In summary, the analysis revealed that 22 different criteria showed a significant increase in percentage of occurrence across groups, while 9 criteria decreased significantly. Findings related to two additional hypotheses were: 1. Twenty-five criteria were not used in drawings across age groups; seven spatial criteria defined in the KSI-A were not used in drawings in the entire sample. Ten additional criteria were not used by group . one and 2 of these same criteria were not present in drawings made by group two. Five additional criteria were not discerned in drawings by the second group, while 5 criteria (in addition to the 7 absent from the entire sample) were not used by group three. 2. A limited number of criteria (9) occurred in a higher percentage of drawings by group two. The differences between percentage of occurrence on several of these criteria were slight between groups one, two, and three. Only one criterion which showed a higher percentage of occurrence in the second group indicated a significant decrease between groups two and three. Recommendations for further study included the following: 1. Research should be focused toward investigation across a broader range or more complete range of age groups, beginning with the preschool age, to ascertain change in spatial presentations with respect to chronological age more broadly and precisely than was done in the present study. 1. Research should be focused toward investigation across a broader range or more complete range of age groups, beginning with the preschool age, to ascertain change in spatial presentations with respect to chronological age more broadly and precisely than was done in the present study. 2. Criteria which showed significant increases or decreases between age groups should be retested with other student populations to further ascertain their usefulness as valid and reliable measures of differences in spatial presentations between chronological age groups 7.4, 9.3, and 11.3 years. 3. Criteria described in the instrument (KSI-A) which did not occur in the entire drawing sample in the present study should be reconsidered or discarded as criteria for analysis of drawings by children in the 7.4, 9.3, and 11.3 age groups. 4. Research should be directed toward the exploration of the correlation of spatial scores from drawings according to the Krieger Spatial Instrument with other measures.