Developmental Changes in Early Comprehension and Production of Drawings: Evidence from Two Socioeconomic Backgrounds

This research examined young children’s comprehension and production of representational drawings across and within two socioeconomic strata (SES). One hundred and thirty middle (MSES) and low SES (LSES) Argentine children, from 30 to 60 months of age, were given a task with two phases, production and comprehension. The production phase assessed Free Drawing and drawings from simple three-dimensional objects (Model Drawing); the comprehension phase assessed children’s understanding of adult’s line drawings of the objects. MSES children solved the comprehension phase of the task within the studied age range; representational production emerged first in Model Drawing (42 months) and later in Free Drawing (48 months). The same developmental pathway was observed in LSES children but with a clear asynchrony in the age of onset of comprehension and production: children understood the symbolic nature of drawings at 42 months and the first representational drawings were found at 60 months of age. These results provide empirical evidence that support the crucial influence of social experiences by organizing and constraining graphic development.