Pre‐schoolers’ feature placement on own and others’ person drawings

Young children find meaning in the drawings they create that may not be apparent to an adult observer. The purpose of this study is to access the children’s views using a drawing change task. Seventy‐three pre‐schoolers were asked to draw a person and then draw a person with a belly button. It was anticipated that tadpole (no separate body) drawers would include a body to accommodate this new feature. Instead belly buttons were included without modifications to the figure suggesting that in the children’s view tadpole figures are not as deficient as they might appear. When placing a belly button on a figure drawn by someone else 40% of tadpole drawers responded differently compared to their own. Possible explanations considered are the effect of active involvement in creating a drawing, the respect for another’s drawing intention, and lack of awareness of differences due to working memory limitations.