IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/palcom/v8y2021i1d10.1057_s41599-021-00872-0.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Drawing places, recreating spaces: visual voices from at-risk children

Author

Listed:
  • Giuliana Pinto

    (University of Florence)

  • Francesco Tosi

    (University of Florence)

  • Oriana Incognito

    (University of Florence)

Abstract

Drawing is a highly participatory mode of communication, particularly suited to allowing children to express their knowledge and ideas about various aspects of reality. It is necessary to ascertain whether children are able to master drawing sufficiently to place it at the service of their representational intentions, and whether they possess the pictorial flexibility needed to articulate and differentiate their graphic representations. The presence and development of this important cognitive–symbolic ability are investigated. This exploratory study aimed to investigate, in children living in socioeconomic and cultural disadvantaged conditions, (1) the emergence and development of the pictorial flexibility needed to effectively represent and differentiate the building in which they live from the building in which they wish they lived; and (2) the patterns in the number and quality of pictorial differentiation strategies adopted for representational purposes. Two-hundred 8-to-12-year-old Brazilian children living in a favela were asked to produce two specific thematic drawings, representing their real house vs. their desired house. The children’s pictorial representations were coded according to their communicative efficacy (allowing the viewer to distinguish, in each pair of drawings, between the real house and the one desired by the drawer) and according to the number and type of pictorial strategies used to diversify the two types of buildings. The children were had sufficient representational flexibility to effectively perform a pictorial differentiation task, and express their point of view on the environment in which they live, and imagine alternative scenarios, adopting a variety of painting strategies. Drawing, prompted with a contrastive task, has proven to be effective in allowing even disadvantaged children to differentiate their real and desired urban environments. Children’s pictorial flexibility manifests itself through a wide range of strategies, varying in number and quality according to the age of the artists. As such, its use can be encouraged by educational interventions aimed at broadening the expressive potential of children, and as a tool for fostering resilience.

Suggested Citation

  • Giuliana Pinto & Francesco Tosi & Oriana Incognito, 2021. "Drawing places, recreating spaces: visual voices from at-risk children," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(1), pages 1-7, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:8:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-021-00872-0
    DOI: 10.1057/s41599-021-00872-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41599-021-00872-0
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41599-021-00872-0?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Laghi, Fiorenzo & Baiocco, Roberto & Cannoni, Eleonora & Di Norcia, Anna & Baumgartner, Emma & Bombi, Anna Silvia, 2013. "Friendship in children with internalizing and externalizing problems: A preliminary investigation with the Pictorial Assessment of Interpersonal Relationships," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 1095-1100.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Eleonora Cannoni & Anna Silvia Bombi, 2016. "Friendship and Romantic Relationships During Early and Middle Childhood," SAGE Open, , vol. 6(3), pages 21582440166, July.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:8:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-021-00872-0. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.nature.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.