The human figure drawings of children with Down syndrome

Abstract

Seventeen children with Down syndrome (mean chronological age 9 years 3 months, mean mental age 4 years 3 months) were individually matched for verbal mental age or chronological age with two groups of normal children. Each child drew a man from imagination and a man from a model. The drawings were scored using Koppitz's (1968) system. The normal 9‐year‐old children produced consistently higher scores than either of the other groups. The children with DS differed from the other groups in that they did not show an improvement in the model task. In addition, whereas the normal 4‐year‐olds' drawing scores correlated with mental age those of the children with DS did not. These results are discussed in terms of the developmental difference debate; in particular, the results provide some evidence for a qualitative difference in the developmental pattern of children with DS.