Several theories have been proposed to explain the "tadpole" phenomenon and the reasons why young children tend to draw unrealistic or incomplete human forms. Some experts suggest that children omit bodily features because of a lack of knowledge about the different parts of the human body and how they are organized. Others argue that children don't look at what they are drawing; instead, they look at the abstract shapes already in their repertoire and discover that these forms can be combined in various ways to symbolize objects in the world. Still others believe that children are simply being selective and drawing only those parts necessary to make their figures recognizable as human forms. It is important for teachers and parents to consider, from a diagnostic standpoint, that a child whom omits certain features when drawing a person may do so quite unintentionally; and, thus, caution should be exercised when interpreting a child's drawing as a reflection of personality or intellectual growth.

- David Mendelowitz

fig. 6: family portrait

fig. 7: self portrait

Children, four and five years of age, will experiment with various ways of drawing the figure and may depict the figure quite differently each time they draw. Sometimes, they create figures quite unique to the person or the experience being depicted. For instance, in figure 8 below, a four year-old boy has depicted a person walking. Notice that the child has drawn this person with greatly overexaggerated feet to symbolize walking. The four year-old who drew the picture of her family shown below (figure 9) has added whiskers and long arms on her "daddy" to express the feeling of being picked up and hugged by her father. She has drawn her mother with a body and legs, but no arms; and has shown her brother and herself as two heads without bodies. Such drawings tend to describe more how children of this age think or feel about the things around them rather than what they actually see when they look.

fig. 8: "person walking"

fig. 9: family portrait

fig. 10: self portrait

fig. 11: self portrait

The sensitive self-portrait shown above (figure 10) was drawn by a four-and-a-half year old boy and is typical of the kind of drawings done by children at this stage. The head is drawn larger because of its importance to the child (it's where eating and talking goes on) and the subject of the drawing is the child himself. Through the act of drawing or painting, a child may explore several self-possibilities before arriving at a satisfying self-image. In this way, art plays a crucial role in the self-defining process.

When planning for drawing and painting activities, teachers should consider that four and five-year olds tend to be egocentric in nature; and, thus, motivational topics which enable these children to express something about their emerging concepts of self are particularly beneficial. Talking with the children about their personal experiences such as those associated with family, school, friends, and pets will often provide ideal starting points for their art encounters to begin. Topics should include "I" or "my" since it helps the child to identify with the subject matter suggested. For instance, appropriate drawing and painting themes for children of this age include "I am Going to School," "My Family" and "I am Playing with My Friends."

fig. 12: on the playground

fig. 13: hansel and gretel

As young children become increasing aware of the world around them, the many objects that make up their environment will begin to appear in their drawings. These objects are seldom drawn in relationship to one another in position or size. Nor are they organized on the page the way in which they are related spatially in the world. Instead, objects will typically appear to "float" on the page in the drawings and paintings done by children of preschool age (figures 10-13). This type of spatial organization may appear to an adult as incorrect in that it doesn't follow the Western tradition of representing three-dimensional space by the use of linear perspective. Instead of considering this as a defect in children's artwork, one might appreciate their honesty in arranging the forms on the page and their capacity for creating balanced two-dimensional compositions (Winner, 1982). Besides, if one looks at the artwork of other cultures or that of many contemporary artists, it can readily be seen that there is no right or wrong way to portray space in a drawing (Lowenfeld, 1975).