Examining a family drawing by your child can reveal a lot. The drawing can show their perception of family relationships, emotions and their place in the family.
Ask the child to "draw a picture of everybody in your family DOING something".
Ask the child to name each one and tell you what each is doing.
Observe the drawing for:
People included or left out, suggesting jealousy or negative relationships.
People smiling vs. scowling or with angry teeth, suggesting anger.
People depicted close together and/or touching each other vs. people separated
on the page or by lines, placed far up or down in the picture from each other, suggesting
a sense of exclusion.
Displayed actions such as shooting, hitting vs. "nurturing actions" such as mowing
the lawn, cooking, doing dishes, playing games.
Signs of positive feelings such as the sun, rainbow, hearts, a house with smoke
coming out of the chimney, fruit bearing trees VS rain clouds, lightning, darkness, things
on fire suggesting trauma.
You may refer to themes in the picture in making your interpretation to the family.
Examples: "It looks as though he really feels left out. See how he drew himself
very small in this corner?" "Why do you think he left his baby sister out of
the picture?"
The human figures can also be rated for fine motor/cognitive level as per Goodenough (See: draw a person).
