Symbols in Children's Drawings as a Visual Communication Tool

Semiotics, which is used for the analysis of a number of communication languages, helps describe the specific operational rules by determining the sub-systems included in the field it examines. Considering that art is a communication language, this approach could be used in analyzing children’s products in art education. The present study aiming at examining primary school students’ drawings with a semiotic approach was designed via the art-based research method, and the drawings were analyzed through the semiotic approach. The study was conducted in the primary school 3rd grade course of Visual Arts at two primary schools, one of which had students with lower socio-economic status, and the other had students with higher socio-economic status in the central town of Eskişehir in the spring term of 2010-2011 academic year. The study was carried out with a total of 26 students, and the participants were asked to draw a picture regarding a concept. The research data were collected via the students’ drawings and via the clinical interviews held with the students regarding their drawings. At the end of the study, it was found out that the semiotic analysis conducted regarding the students’ drawings was not only a tool that helped make psychological descriptions but also an approach that allowed following their mental development processes; that mostly the students attending the school from the lower socio-economic status used both the direct meanings of objects and their meanings based on reason-result relationships; and the symbolic meanings of objects were mostly favored by students attending the school from the higher socio-economic status. In this respect, the semiotic approach could be considered as an effective way to diversify the diagnostic techniques used both by educators and by parents to give meaning to students’ inner-worlds and their viewpoints about the environment and to monitor their mental processes while analyzing students’ drawings.

2015

This study investigates the multiple layers of meaning-making young children represent in their drawings. Taking a social semiotics theoretical framework to analyse children’s drawings, this study is designed around four main research questions: to examine the modes children use, the themes they illustrate, the meanings they communicate, and the possible influences that affect their drawings. It is developed around three case studies of four-year old children who attended the same school in Malta. The data were collected over four months, where the three children were encouraged to draw in both the home and school settings. During and post drawing conversations were held with the children and their parents, to bring out the meanings conveyed. The observations and conversations were video-recorded and transcribed. In total, the children drew two hundred, twenty-three drawings. The children’s participation was supported throughout the data collection process: they video-recorded thems...

Semiotic analysis is a study of sign processes and communication. Facial expressions and the body language in the illustrations are important signs to emphasis the desired idea. Illustrated pre-school children books are very effective in shaping the mind and imaginations of the children. In this article the relations of signifier and signified at facial expressions in illustrations of children books are analyzed.

2013

The following PhD thesis is an empirical study of Iranian children's understanding of expression of emotions in pictures their foreknowledge of the themes "happiness" and "sadness" in relation to their living environment as well as their expression of the emotions "happiness" and "sadness" in their drawings. The focus is on two groups of 6 and 7-years-old Iranian children, one group consists of children born and raised in Iran and the other group consists of Iranian children born and raised in Germany (the children of immigrant families). Various scientific research methods including: interviews with each child, collection of drawings and qualitative data analysis were used to collect data and analysis data. The study is based on data collected during three personal sessions with each child which included personal interviews about the themes sadness and happiness, drawings by children under these two themes as well as two interviews about ...

Kultura i Edukacja, 2018

The problem around which this study was constructed is the contemporary art and a person, who creates this art-an artist, and their authentic perception by the child. A modern vision of the child too often shows the artist in a distorted, incomplete or reduced way. This kind of children knowledge, based on the patterns and stereotypes, reduces the reflectivity of children, unnecessarily distorts their judgment and closes the road ahead to a full and critical participation in the world. The study is based on the analysis of interviews and children's drawings centered around the perception of the profile of an artist by children. It results from the analysis of the research material gathered during the study that this is a stereotypical vision, and the artist is still associated with a person who remains beyond the reach of "normal" society. The conducted research shows the diversity of the types of meanings that children aged 5-7 attribute to the term "artist" and "artistry". The naive ideas on this subject created by children prove to be a collection of beliefs of a partially common and often completely different nature. For a pedagogue, the ultimate purpose of the research is to obtain knowledge which will allow effective changes in education, in this case, in art education. The investigation of meanings which children attribute to concepts concerning the artistic phenomena may allow to create a strategy of transmission of knowledge of art history and to design the creative activities connected with the broadly-understood visual arts.

Journal of Early Childhood Research, 2018

Children’s drawings have been analysed in research for several decades, frequently using a narrative style. This article introduces an innovative methodological tool to analyse young children’s drawings. Taking a social semiotics perspective, the aim of this tool is not to replace narrative analysis but to complement it. The study was conducted with three 4-year-old children who were encouraged to draw freely at home and at school. The discussion begins by examining how the form of the drawing, that is, the type and quantity of the modes children used, was analysed; this is followed by an analysis of the content, that is, the type and quantity of the themes, the children drew. Consequently, a data cross-grid was developed, where a total of 223 drawings were plotted across three separate data cross-grids – one for each child. Once all the drawings were plotted, the three grids provided a different way of looking and interpreting the drawings. While noting the limitations of the study, it is concluded that the data cross-grids provide an instantaneous graphical impression of each child’s preferred semiotic (modes) and configuration (themes) styles, which reflect each child’s unique personality and identity as a drawer. Ultimately, such a tool could be used by practitioners and researchers to understand the children’s preferred ways of drawing. It can also be adapted and modified to analyse other modes children use such as playing, drawing, and movement.

International Journal of Early Years Education, 2017

This paper examines the schematic underpinnings in the drawings of a four-year-old girl, Thea. The paper reviews literature on graphic representations, signs and meaning-making before discussing schematic form in children's drawings, the theoretical background for the study. The paper discusses ethical issues and methodological approaches to the study where data include drawings made at home and school, Thea's recorded talk about drawings, and video recordings of her drawing sessions over a four-month period. These were coded manually and using NVivo to identify schemas. The paper discusses examples of Thea's exploration of enclosure and trajectory schematic form, which are represented by rich content derived from her experiences and imagination. The paper concludes that Thea's drawings included many schematic signifiers with clear evidence of complex thinking around enclosures and of vertical and horizontal trajectories. The paper evidences the importance of listening to children's talk as they draw in order to understand more fully, the meanings they are making. Through signs, symbols and personal narratives, Thea used drawing as a meaningful semiotic space where her persistent schematic concerns were manifest.

European Journal of Child Development Education and Psychopathology, 2014

Present research focuses on the ability of Greek preschool education children to be self-expressed through spontaneous painting in a subject of their free choice communicating their emotions. The method of this research based on painting analysis which focus on content, size, use of paper and colors that were chosen by the children. Moreover, factors as gender and socio-financial status of participated children was correlated with their capability to express themselves. The observation and data analysis of colors that kids selected, the forms that they painted; and the dimensions of their painting provided important information for their ability to express their emotions. The most of preschoolers expressed their emotions making colorful images in an effort to represent their familiar persons with images revealing their relationships with their parents and siblings. The ability of children self-expression is a part from their creativity, mental and emotional communication which they construct interactively their social relationships among them and other children; and their teachers and parents in an initiative level. As research concluded painting helps children to express spontaneously their real positive and negative emotions, thoughts and feelings.

2012

The following PhD thesis is an empirical study of Iranian children's understanding of expression of emotions in pictures their foreknowledge of the themes "happiness" and "sadness" in relation to their living environment as well as their expression of the emotions "happiness" and "sadness" in their drawings. The focus is on two groups of 6 and 7-years-old Iranian children, one group consists of children born and raised in Iran and the other group consists of Iranian children born and raised in Germany (the children of immigrant families). Various scientific research methods including: interviews with each child, collection of drawings and qualitative data analysis were used to collect data and analysis data. The study is based on data collected during three personal sessions with each child which included personal interviews about the themes sadness and happiness, drawings by children under these two themes as well as two interviews about ...