Children's’ Drawing Skills Predict How Intelligent They Will Be After 10 Years: Study

A child's drawing skill can help predict his IQ level a decade later, finds a study.

Researchers at the Kings College London recently discovered a four-year-olds' artistic abilities on canvas and colors indicates the mental capacities he/she is likely to have a decade later. The scientists observed 15,504 children who were asked to draw a picture that was rated on a scale of zero to 12. The experts noted clarity and finer details in the picture like head, eyes, nose, ears, body proportion, usage of colors and mouth. The participants also undertook tests that measured their verbal and non-verbal skills at age four and 14.

It was seen that children who had high scores in the drawing test also fared well in verbal and non-verbal tests.

"The Draw-a-Child test was devised in the 1920's to assess children's intelligence, so the fact that the test correlated with intelligence at age four was expected. What surprised us was that it correlated with intelligence a decade later. The correlation is moderate, so our findings are interesting, but it does not mean that parents should worry if their child draws badly," said Rosalind Arden, study author and researcher at the Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre at the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London, reports the Telegraph.

"Drawing ability does not determine intelligence, there are countless factors, both genetic and environmental, which affect intelligence in later life," adds Arden.

The study group also involved identical and fraternal twins whose performances were compared to assess genetic factors that influenced art and mental skills. Identical twins when aged four had similar results in both tests compared to non-identical twins.

The authors believe these findings directly relate intelligence with art. They say the ability to blend in ideas, emotions and expressions depicts one's mind and these skills are similar to that of writing.

"This study does not explain artistic talent; the scores only quantify accuracy of attributes, such as the number of limbs, in the drawing. But our results do show that whatever conflicting theories adults have about the value of verisimilitude in early figure drawing, children who express it to a greater extent are somewhat brighter than those who do not," the authors wrote in the study.

More information is available online in the journal Psychological Science.