If a child who has experienced deaths and drug abuse as a child, draws ominous things that depict people like in a scary movie, with depressing colours.

Question: If a child who has experienced deaths and drug abuse as a child, draws ominous things that depict people like in a scary movie, with depressing colours. Do you think this could relate to her experiences as a child?
- Keywords:
  child,
  colour,
  death,
  depressing,
  draw,
  drug abuse,
  experience,
  relate
Asked by @milia_3 to Sam, Rose, Maggi, Kirsty, Ben on 15 Jun 2017.
- Sam Carr answered on 15 Jun 2017:
  
  Drawings “can” be an insight into a child’s mind – in many, many ways. But we have to be careful not to assume that everything they draw is indicative of something ominous or deeper. There have been studies, for example, to suggest that children known to have been sexually abused are around 7 times more likely to draw genitalia on human characters in their drawings than are comparison children (i.e., non-abused children). So, in such cases drawings “can” be indicative of something. There are certainly whole areas of psychology devoted to drawing and asking questions about what children’s drawings “mean” and how drawing can help children express things that they can’t otherwise express.
- Kirsty Miller answered on 16 Jun 2017:
  
  Hi again 🙂 Another good question! I think it is possible, although there are lots of ways to interpret things such as art. However, art therapy is often used with children, and can be very useful. Art therapists would be trained to interpret pictures, or use them to talk to children, so I think the rest of us should be careful to read too much into it! I think if the child had a history of being abused there is a possibility their drawing might relate to it, but without talking to the child about what (if anything) they meant by the picture, then I think we shouldn’t assume too much!
- Rose Turner answered on 17 Jun 2017:
  
  Very interesting Q! Some aspects of children’s drawings might relate to fictitious things, like stories they’ve read or movies they’ve seen too. Children also have very active imaginations (which is a key part of their development) so it’s certainly possible that some drawings aren’t based in their real-life experiences. However, as Sam ad Kirsty say, drawings can be a way for children to express things that they perhaps don’t have words for, or don’t feel safe to talk about (such as grief or abuse). And art therapy (and other forms of therapy like drama and play therapies) can help children to express these with an experienced therapist.

Question: If a child who has experienced deaths and drug abuse as a child, draws ominous things that depict people like in a scary movie, with depressing colours. Do you think this could relate to her experiences as a child?

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