Validity of Preschoolers' Self-Drawings as an Index of Human Figure Drawing Performance

Abstract

Fifteen preschoolers were administered the Goodenough-Harris Draw-a-Person Test (DAPT) (Harris, 1963), Ayres and Reid's (1966) assessment of self-drawings, and the General Information subtest, which is a verbal measure of the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI) (Wechsler, 1967). High correlations were obtained between the man, woman, and man/woman converted scores of the DAPT and the self-drawings that were scored with Ayres and Reid's procedure. These data indicate that Ayres and Reid's self-drawing scoring system may be a useful replacement for the longer DAPT when clinicians want a quick and easy method of assessing a child's figure drawing abilities. Low correlations between all of the figure drawing and WPPSI scores are consistent with other data that indicate that figure drawing ability is more highly correlated with the performance than with the verbal components of IQ tests.