Draw-a-Child Test at Age 4 Years Correlates with Intelligence at Age 14 Years

Data confirm its value as a screening tool at school-readiness visits and beyond.

A child's performance in drawing a picture of his or her family — a part of well-child visits in many pediatric practices — reflects cognitive, motor, perceptual, attentional, and motivational capacities.

To determine whether childhood drawing is predictive of later intelligence, investigators conducted a cohort study including 7752 pairs of twins representative of the U.K. population in socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and parental occupation. At age 4 years, each twin was separately administered the Draw-a-Child Test by a parent, who asked the child to do the following: “Draw a picture of a (girl/boy [same gender as child]). Do the best that you can. Make sure that you draw all of (him/her).” Scoring of each drawing was based on the Gooden…

Reviewing Author

Martin T. Stein, MD

Disclosures

Consultant / Advisory boardPearson Neuroscience Advisory Board

Speaker’s bureauAmerican Academy of Pediatrics

RoyaltiesElsevier, Inc.

Editorial boardsJournal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics