Percepfzral and Motor Skills, 2001,92, 1154-1166.

O Perceptual and Motor SktUs 2001

DRAWING PERFORMANCE IN PREDICTION O F SPECIAL

LEARNING DIFFICULTIES OF KINDERGARTEN CHILDREN '

HELEN1 MATI-ZISSI AND MARIA ZAFIROPOULOU

Department of Preschool Edzrcatiorz
University o/ Thessaly, Greece

Szrrnmary.-Recent experimental studies indicate the importance of drawmg pro-

cess in determining the final shape of the drawn product. Emphasis has been gl\cn on
short-term and working memory, visual perception, visuospatial encoding planning,
sequencing, and depiction of the third dimension. The above prerequisites are also
necessary for the acquisition of reading and spelling. The aim of the present study was
to investigate the prereading and drawing abilities of kindergarten children. 20 boys
and girls were selected from 1,237 kindergarten children, based on their performance
on a set of drawing tasks. The drawings were used as tools to indicate the conditions
under which deficiencies in [he cognitive system become apparent. Those 20 children
and 20 matched controls were again tested during their first three years in primary
school. The reassessment on the first and third year included tasks on drawing as well
as on reading and sp&g (speed and accuracy) based on the curriculum. The results
showed an effect of the same copnltlve factors in both areas of knowledge. The cogni-
tive deficiencies observed acrosh rdsks focused on che children's information process-
ing and were apparent in both symbolic systems.

Much is already known about the role of preschool phonological and

orthographic s U s in the prediction of reading. In recent research findings
the relationship between phonological skills and readmg has prevailed, which
is investigated through phonological awareness tasks and, in particular, tasks
of phoneme segmentation or deletion, administered to children in kindergar-
ten or first grade. These were significant predictors of later readmg abhty
(Felton, 1992; Badian, 1995; Goswami, 1997). The preschool awareness of
rhyme and the tasks involving syllables, i.e., nonword repetition, have also
been used as predictors of reading abihty (Gathercole & bad dele^, 1996).
Serial naming speed, which is often classified as a phonological task (Wagner
& Torgesen, 1987) and, in particular, symbol naming (letters, numerals)
speed have generally been among the strongest predictors of reading and a
better ddferentiator between good and poor readers than speed of naming
colors or pictured objects.
In addition, the importance of orthogyaphic processing in reading skills
has been increasingly emphasized in recent years (Adams, 1990; Cunning-

Please direct enquiries or reqllerrs for reprints to Dr. IM. Zafiro oulou, Department of Pre-
s ~ h o o lEducation, University of T'he~srlY,Argonafton di Filelltnon k c . , Yolos, 18221 Greece or
e-mail (mzafirop@uth.gr)or ( ~ a f i r o ~ ~ @ ~ r o o v y . g r ) .
 DRAWING AS PREDICTION OF LEARNING 1155

ham & Stanovich, 1993; Badian, 1998). Adams focused attention on the con-
tinuing importance of orthographic processing, even for skilled readers and
argued that the recognition of letters, spelling patterns, and whole words au-
tomatically is crucial to fluent reading.
In contrast to the body of research focusing on the role of phonological
s U s and visual-orthographic processing skds in the prediction of consistent
reading disabhties, only few studies have included tests which are based on
children's drawing production (Po\vers & Range, 1990; Mati-Zissi, Zafiropou-
IOU, & Bonoti, 1998). Mati-Zissi, et a/. (1998) focused on drawing by chil-
dren with special learning difficulties in readmg and spelling. According to
Thomson's definition of special learning difficulties (1996), those children
suffer "severe dfficulty with the written form of language independent of
intellectual, cultural and emotional causation" (p. 3 ) .
Aspects of drawing ability examined in particular were coordination of
parts into an organised whole, visuospatial encoding, spatial orientation, size
scaling, depiction of recognisable objects, and planning abhty. The results
indicated that the perception of the position, the limits, and the distances
between the drawn parts of the picture, the orientation of the various figures
and their sequence, and the conception itself of each form as it emerges
through its structural components all appear to develop in dyslexic children
in the same peculiar manner they develop in reading and writing. Their
drawings were characterized by stereotypy and weak in detad, something
which could be considered natural since drawing depends on graphic repre-
sentation.
Considerable interest has recently been shown in the cognitive pro-
cesses and mechanisms involved in constructing representations of famhar
or unfamiliar objects (Freeman, 1980; Dennis, 1992; Karmiloff-Smith, 1992;
Case & Ogamoto, 1996). More specifically, recent experimental studies indi-
cate the importance of the drawing process in determining the final shape of
the finished product (Freeman, 1980; Henderson & Thomas, 1990). Ernpha-
sis has been given to the drawing process, visual perception, visuospatial en-
coding, planning, and sequencing. Children's "errors" are attributed to defi-
cits in the information-processing system as well as to limitations in short-
term and working memory.
The aim of the present study was to investigate the prereading and
drawing of kindergarten children and the possible correlation between these
and future reading disabhties. This is attempted through tasks based on the
information-processing system which is particularly involved in aspects of
the structural model of cognitive processing for the reading of written words
(Ellis, 1995). Recent research findings have indicated that the drfficulties of
children with special learning difficulties were attributed to deficits in the
visual-analysis system and the visual-input lexicon.
1156 H. MATI-ZISSI & M. ZAFIROPOULOU

The visual-analysis system, a nonlexical system, recognizes and indicates

the position of the letter symbols inside the word. This system stores the
visual information in short-term memory to analyze it in its graphemic con-
stituents and eventually passes it on to a long-term memory of graphemes
known as visual-input lexicon. Perception of shape, form, and position of
symbols is, therefore, a significant component of the readmg mechanism.
Equally important for the readmg process is the grapheme-phoneme corre-
spondence, that is, the conversion of words in syllable codes. It is at this
point of the reading process where children with special learning ddficulties
encounter difficulties. Accordingly, Mati-Zissi (2000) proposed a similar sys-
tem of drawing process where the visual-analysis system analyzes those draw-
ing symbols, k e spots, lines, circles, and squares which form the simplest
drawing units. The combination of these units leads to the production of
drawings. Necessary prerequisite for a correct depiction of objects is percep-
tion of shape, spatial orientation, and position (Thomas & S d k , 1990). Draw-
ing performance is also fac~litatedby recalling familiar picture representa-
tions stored in memory (Cox, 1992). The results of Mati-Zissi's study (2000)
indcated that children with special learning difficulties show deficient draw-
ing skds and, therefore, ddferent drawing strategies possibly because their
drawing mechanisms for correct depiction appear to be misfunctioning. The
focus of the present study was to investigate these mechanisms in preschool
children.
Ktndergartners who show "peculiarities" in their drawings were expect-
ed to show lower performance on cognitive tasks like block design and on
lexical tasks which require activation of short-term and working memory,
i.e., digit span, nonword repetition, mechanisms. It is also highly possible
that this group of kmdergarten children would show lower performance on
spatial orientation tasks.
Recent research findings have indicated that children with special learn-
ing difficulties show normal performance in depicting geometric shapes. Our
next hypothesis was that, even if the final drawn product is the "correct"
one, there would be Merences in orientation, sequencing, and size scaling.
What was generally expected was that all above abilities develop at very slow
rates in all members of the group of special learning difficulties children. It
was also expected that the parameters of the drawing process would corre-
late with scores on cognitive and orientation tasks as well as with reading
accuracy.
Finally, should the above-mentioned correlation exist, then, taking into
serious account the preschool children's drawing production would probably
add to the evaluation and instruction of slulls as occur in subsequent read-
ing.
 DRAWING AS PREDICTION OF LEARNING 1157

Participants
Twenty right-handed boys and girls (11 boys and 9 girls) who met the
following criteria were selected from a considerable number of lundergarten
children (1,237) for our investigation: I Q test score of not less than 90 on
the WISC-111; no medical history of ill health, hearing, uncorrected visual
defects, or motor problems; no prolonged absence from school and had not
changed schools; from Magnesia region, native speakers of Greek; no emo-
tional difficulties as assessed by an independent psychologist; drawings pre-
sented "errors" consistent with those of children with special learning diffi-
culties, as assessed in our previous study.
Mean chronological age at the time of the first preschool testing was 5
yr., 11 mo., with a range of 5 yr., 7 mo. to 6 yr. 3 mo.
Design and Procedure
The first assessment of the initial sample was made in kindergarten. The
children who presented the typical drawing "errors" of children with special
learning Miculties, i.e., orientation problems, incorrect size-scaling, insuffi-
cient planning, stereotypy and oversimplification, omission of significant
parts, and inabhty to move freely towards any direction in space (Mati-Zissi,
et al., 1998) were 48. I Q , as well as the above mentioned emotional, medi-
cal, behavioral, and demographic criteria (socioeconomic status was not con-
sidered), lunited the number of children to 20 who were further examined
in depth for the purpose of our study. They were matched with 20 "nor-
mally" drawing children, who were selected at random from the initial sam-
ple. Handedness was assessed on the Edinburgh Inventory (Oldfield, 197 1).
Each of these children completed the following set of drawing tasks:
"Draw a manJ' task (Harris, 1963).-As man represents one of the most
popular drawing topics with children they were asked to "draw the very
best human figure they could." In the present study we examined, not the
children's knowledge of man or their mental abdity, but their ability to draw
sequentially, successively the parts of the human figure.
"A man sitting on a chair" task (Cox, 1992).-Ln this task children were
asked to "depict a man sitting on a chair." Consequently they had to pre-
plan which parts of the chair were not visible (as they were hidden behind
the sitting human body) so that transparency was avoided. Otherwise, if the
child was guided only by the description of the scene, transparency would
be the result.
The drawing of cups (Davis, 1983).-In this particular task we assessed
the recognizability of drawings and the visually reahstic representation of the
drawn objects. Firstly, children were asked to "draw the cup they saw in
1158 H. MATI-ZISSI & M. ZAFIROPOULOU

front of them," the handle of which was not visible from their position
(Condition a), Secondly, children were asked to "draw the pair of cups they
saw in front of them" one of which had a visible handle, whereas the other
did not (Condition b). The existence of contrast on the handle aimed at aid-
ing the correct depiction of objects.
<I
A tree behind a houseJ'.-From memory (Condition a) and copying
from a model (Conditions b and c; Bonoti, 1998), in Condition a, the chil-
dren were required to "draw a tree behind a house". In Condition b they
were shown a picture of a tree behind a house and were then asked to
"copy it as well as they could." In Condition c the children were shown a
model of a tree behind a house and were required to "draw the model they
saw on their desk." For the task of partial shading of one object, we
adopted the developmental stages suggested by Freeman (1980). The aim
was to check if and to what extent the child could draw in a visually realistic
way one object behind another one. Copying from a three-dimensional mod-
el (Condition b) and from the two-dimensional paper (Condition c) aimed at
facilitating memory and at eliminating planning hitations.
Drawing o f a "house, a tree, a man, and a bird".-With this task we in-
vestigated the child's abdity to draw more than one object in an organized
whole applying sequence and layout rules. For this purpose, children were
asked to "draw a house, a tree, a man, and a bird d on the same page."
Drawing of a multicolored cube (Moore, 19861.-The children were
shown a cube with each face painted a different color and were asked to say
what it was and also to name the colors of the faces. Having finished that,
the cube was placed on the table so that only three of the sides were visible,
the top one and the two adjacent right and left. The children were then
asked to "draw exactly what they could see from where they were sitting."
Having completed the task the children were handed 10 coloring pencils
(the colors of the sides of the cube included) and were asked to "color in
their drawings with the right colors to make it look exactly as the cube they
see in front of them." The aim here was for the children to produce a lateral
projection of the geometrical solid shape. Children were anticipated to draw
the three sides visible to the observer. The coloring condition, according to
Moore (1986) provided us a second opportunity to establish whether a child
could produce a visually realistic drawing independently of his abhty to
draw the outline of the cube. Coloring pencils were used only in this last
task.
Children were provided with paper and pencil for the drawing tasks.
Criteria for Scoring Drawings
To assess the drawings of the man, each drawing was scored according
to the Goodenough-Harris "Draw-a-Man" Test (Harris, 1963; Mati-Zissi, et
al., 1998). Scoring of all remaining drawings was based on the criteria of our
 DRAWING AS PREDICTION OF LEARNING 1159

previous study (Mati-Zissi, et a/., 1998) using a 0-3 scale. A score of 0

meant failure to depict a recognizable object according to drawing require-
ments. A score of 1 meant composition inability, i.e., incapability of visuospa-
tial encoding and planning. A score of 2 meant canonical representation of
objects. The child draws using the known properties of the objects in order
to represent their structural features. A score of 3 meant visually realistic rep-
resentation of objects, depiction of features visible from the observer's posi-
tion.
All tasks were assessed by two independent raters with an interrater
agreement of 93% to 97% for all drawing tasks.
Children were also tested on the following prereading skdls considered
as predictive factors for reading.
Verbal Ability
The Digit Span subtest of the Wechsler Intehgence Scales for Children
(WISC-111). The accuracy of serial recall was scored by the experimenter,
according to the instructions of the actual test. Previous studies using this
test have verified children with special learning difficulties in forward and
backward recall of a series of numbers (Ellis, McDougal, & Monk, 1996;
Thomson, 1996; Plaza & Guitton, 1997; Thomson & Watkms, 1997).
Nonword repetition (Gathercole, Hitch, Service, & Martin, 19971.--40
nonwords, 10 each containing two, three, four, and five syllables were given
to each child to test phonological short-term memory. Responses were
scored as incorrect if the experimenter judged that the child produced a
sound that differed from the target nonword by one or more phonemes.
Nonverbal Ability
The Block Design subtest of the WISC-111.-The task involved the dis-
play of a series of designs of colored blocks; for each display, the ch~ld'stask
was to reproduce the display with a set of matching blocks. The rest was
graded in difficulty, and a score was calculated on the basis of the number
of correct responses made within the allowed time limits.
Deuelopmental Test of ViFual Motor Integration included in the Georgas
(1970) IQ test.-This allowed us to measure the children's abhty to copy 10
out of 24 shapes developmentally graded in difficulty.
The Spatial Orientation Task (Pollock & Waller, 19941.-In a squared
page a starting point was made. Children were asked to move two squares to
the left or down and so on. They did not know what their pictures would
be, until they were finished.
In the first, second, and third grades of primary school the children
were tested on their readmg abhty (speed and accuracy) using criteria based
on the National Curriculum. We also recorded their errors on dictation and
1160 H. MATI-ZISSI & M. ZAFIROPOULOU

composition writing. A follow-up study on the children's drawings was ad-

ministered in the first and third grades.
RESULTSA N D DISCUSSION
Table 1 summarizes the performance scores of both groups of children
recorded in kindergarten.

TABLE 1
MEANS
A N D STANDARDDEVIATIONS
OF TWOGROUPS ON PRESCHOOL SCREENING
MEASURES AND ON READING
h l u n I N ~ N D E R G A R T E N (ns=20)

Measure Experimental Group Control Group

M SD M SD
Age, yr., mo.
Draw a man
A man sitting on a chair
CUP
Cups
A tree behind a house (memory)
A tree behind a house (copy 1)
A tree behind a house (copy 2 )
House, tree, man, bird
A multicolored cube
Digit Span
Nonword Repetition
Block Design
Georgas's Test
Orientation

The drawings of the experimental group of children are of particular in-

terest, especially the depiction of man. The analysis of variance showed a
statistically significant ddference in scores between the experimental and
control groups (F,,,,=40.87, p < ,001). Observation of the mean scores of the
particular task as we1 as of the drawing procedure shows a weakness of
these children in keeping sequence, also in programming and in spatial inte-
gration. The absence of details, even though some of them depict main fea-
tures of the human being, i.e., eyes, arms, etc., as well as absence of clothing
and movement are also obvious. In all the remaining drawing tasks a series
of multivariate analyses of variance was implemented to investigate whether
conditions which are known to have an effect on processing of graphemes
- -

during reading also affect the drawing depiction in tasks which require cer-
tain skds for the manipulation of the above conditions.
Children in the experimental group appeared to be weak in orientation,
direction, and succession of visual information (the drawing of cups, Condi-
tion a and Condition b) when attempting to integrate drawings in a recogniz-
able organized whole (F,,,, = 145.22, p < .001 for the drawing of one cup;
 DRAWING AS PREDICTION O F LEARNING 1161

F,,,, = 97.96, p < .001 for the drawing of two cups). These deficiencies were
also apparent when the children were asked to draw "a house, a tree, a man
and a bird" (F,,,,= 14.59, p < .OO). Here children had to compose the second-
ary parts in a whole, lay them out in harmony on the page, and retain the
analogy between these parts.
The main effect of group was proven statistically significant on the cir-
cumstances demanding spatial relations depiction (the drawing of a sitting
man F,,,, =44.60, p < ,001 and the drawing of a tree behind a house from
memory F,,,,=55.83, p < ,001). ALL in all, a lack of planning in the actions re-
quired and a ddficulty in moddying the famihar representation of an object
were observed (e.g., the man supposed to be shown sitting, or the tree, a
great part of which should be hidden behind the house). In the drawing of a
tree, it is important to note that not even copying (Conditions b and c)
helped pupils of the experimental group to produce correct representations
[the copying of the picture of a tree behind a house: F,,,,=404.74 (p<.O01)
and the drawing of the tree behind a house from a model: F,,,,=227.06 ( p <
.OOl)l.
Regarding control of the drawn representation of a geometrical solid
shape in the task of drawing a multicolored cube, which has been broadly
used as a drawing tool, the requirements of the particular task, i.e., knowl-
edge as well as coordination of perceptual, visual, and motor s u s , demon-
strated the weakness of the experimental children to depict the three differ-
ent sides which were visible to them (F,,,,= 9.51, p < .01). Instead, they drew
and colored just one side either with only one color or with more, some of
which were not even the actual colors of the original cube shown to them.
In the remaining preschool measures [Digit Span: F,,,, = 3 1.62 ( p< .001),
Nonword Repetition: F,,3,= 20.85 ( p < .001)], a slight deficiency was evident
in the experimental group on serial digit repetition but malnly in nonword
repetition. This appears both to confirm our research hypotheses and also
verrfy current research data (Ellis, 1995; Gathercole & Baddeley, 1996) which
also suggests a deficiency in short-term and working memory in those chil-
dren.
Findings derived from spatial orientation tasks, i.e., Block Design: F,,,=
20.65 ( p < .001), and Orientation: F,,,, =53.35 ( p < .001), also support the
short-term and working memory weakness. On the visuomotor coordination
task no statistically significant differences were found between the experi-
mental and control groups, confirming previous studies (F,,,,= 6.01, p < .05;
Dautrich, 1993). Worth mentioning, however, is that observation of the
drawing procedure demonstrated a quahtative difference benveen the two
groups. Experimental children drew in a down upward direction, from right
to left, they turned the paper, and they did not use size scahg.
At the end of first grade performance on readmg and s p e h g indicated
 TABLE 2
PFARSON
CORRELATION
COEFFICIENTS
O F PRESCHOOI. WITHGRADE3 SCORESON RFADINC
VARIABLES ACHIEVEMENT

Variable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 0 1 1 1 2 1 3 1 4 F
I. Draw a nlan
2. A man sitting on a chair
3. Cup
4. CUDS
5. A t'ree behind a house (memory)
6. A tree behind a house (copy 1)
7. A tree behind a house (copy 2)
8. House, tree, man, bird
9. A multicolored cubc
10. Digit Spun
11. Nonword Repetition
12. Block Design
13. Georgas's test
14. Orientation
15. Reading (accuracy)
*p < ,001.
 DRAWING AS PREDICTION OF LEARNING 1163

that of the 20 experimental children, 16 were late in acquiring the grade/

age-appropriate readmg mechanism making the characteristic reading errors
of children with special learning difficulties (see Thomson, 1996). The re-
maining four children seemed to progress normally.
The 20 controls did not all perform satisfactorily either. However, none
of them made the reading errors characteristic of the children in the experi-
mental group. In Grade 2 13 experimental children continued having the
same learning difficulties in readmg. Three of them, however, were able to
overcome some of their difficulties after great personal effort and parental
help. Two of the normally progressing pupils in the control group suddenly
presented with reading difficulties.
In Grade 3 the reading problems which were obvious in Grade 2 be-
came more intense because the teaching material grew more complex and,
therefore, more difficult. In the domain of drawing, despite the slight prog-
ress observed, the typical "drawing errors" of the experimental children s t d
existed, enabling us to continue to separate the two groups very clearly.
Correlation analyses (Table 2 ) seem to validate the positive correlation
between prereading skills and future reading accuracy.
Current views on special reading difficulties are usually based on lan-
guage-processing models. Their focus is mainly on deficits of functions which
accompany language and also on lexical cognitive mechanisms. Analyses of
the present results indicate a high positive correlation between reading accu-
racy in decoding in Grade 3 and the parameters of early drawing depiction
in preschoolers. The highest positive correlation appeared in the depiction of
spatial relationships, direction, orientation, programming, and sequence as
well as in the application of rules which accompany all the above. Also worth
mentioning is the high positive correlation which appeared between the
drawing factors and the storing and recalling abilities of short-term but main-
ly of phonological worlung memory (Gathercole & Baddeley, 1996; Gather-
cole, et al., 1997). It appears, therefore, that the present results allow us to
suggest
-
-
the llkely existence of an operational intercorrelation of readmg, writ-
ing, and drawing in a unified dynamic semiotic system.
AU preschool scores were entered into stepwise regression analysis with
readmg accuracy as the dependent variable. As is demonstrated in Table 3,
drawing tasks requiring visuospatial decoding, i.e., the task of drawing a pair
of cups, one with a visible handle and the other with an invisible handle, ac-
counted for 63 % of variance, followed by the nonword repetition, digit span,
tasks requiring integration of parts into a whole, orientation, and block de-
sign in the total explained variance of 90.6%. These results support the im-
portance of the role of preschool screening measures for the predction of
reading speed and accuracy in junior primary school pupils. However, pre-
diction is not a static process. According to Badlan (1995) as the nature of
1164 H. MATI-ZISSI & M. ZAFIROPOULOU

TABLE 3
PERCENTAGE
OF VARIANCE
CONTRIBUTEDBY PRESCHOOLMWURESTO GRADE 3 RELADING
IN
REGRESSION
STEPWISE (SPEEDO F READINGAS DEPENDENT
ANALYSES VARLABLE)

Model Statistic
R R2 R2~di. dfl df2 F P
1 .94a ,885 .882 1 38 294.13 ,001
2 .95b .914 ,909 2 37 196.86 ,001
3 .9Gc ,923 ,916 3 36 144.56 ,001
3Predictors: "A tree behind a house"; Predictors: "A tree behind a house," "A man blrrln
on a chair"; 'Predictorr: "A tree b e k d a house," "A man sit,,
Design."
on a chair." lock J

readmg changes so changes the prehctors. As shown in Tables 3 and 4, a

high percentage of variance relevant to reading speed and accuracy is inter-
preted via the parameters of the information-processing system which is re-
sponsible for the depiction of nonfarnhar drawing topics. In this case, the
task of drawing a tree behind a house and a man sitting on a chair demand
the activation of a new system of mechanisms. This system appears to re-
quire visuospatial codmg and auditory worlung memory (Logie, 1995). The
efficiency of the system is shown in the planning of actions during the pro-
cess of production. It is possible that, on a phonological level, this process
could be parallel to the task of reading nonwords. One more basic feature of
reading accuracy is orientation (Pollock & Waller, 1994), the important pre-
dictive properties of which in later reading performance of children also
emerged from the present results.

TABLE 4
PERCENTAGE
OF VARIANCE
CONTRIBUTED
BY PRESCHOOL MWURESTO GRADE 3 RFAD~NGI N
STEPWISE
REGRESSION
ANALYSES
(ACCURACYOF h l N G AS DEPENDENT
VkABLE)

Model Statistic
R RZ R2~di. dfl df2 F P

5 .95e ,913 ,901 5 34 72.24 .001

Vredictors: " A tree behind a house"; b~redicrors:"A cree behind a house," "A man sitting
on a chair"; 'Predictors: "A tree behind a house," "A man sirting on a chair," "Block De-
sign." d~redictors:"A tree behind a house," "A man sitting on a chair," "Block Design,"
"Nonword Repetition." ePrediccors: "A tree b e h e d a house," "A man sitting on a chair,"
"Block Design," "Nonword Repetition," "Orientat~on."

With reference to relative predictiveness of later reading, it should be

noted here that other standardized tests and especially the WISC are also
employed to determine possible future learntng barriers. Certainly, children
with low intehgence will develop difficult~esm written language. However,
 DRAWING AS PREDICTION O F LEARNING 1165

the special readmg dLfficulty which the present study investigates is a severe
difficulty with the written form of language which is characterized by the in-
Bvidual's reading, writing, and spelling achievements being well below the
level expected based on intelligence and chronological age (Thomson, 1996).
Ln other words, it is independent of intehgence, among other things.
In summary, the present study investigated memory, phonological, and
nonverbal skill of preschoolers in relation to the drawing parameters of ori-
entation, sequence, size scaling, and planning, the latter including alignment
data as well as application of array rules, using a certain set of drawing tasks.
Employment of-those tasks contributed to the demonstration that, during
preschool age, certain features of children's drawings can lead to the identi-
fication of a specific group of young pupils.
This highly distinguishable group of preschoolers appears to produce
drawings exceptionally poor in details, which drawings are also characterized
by synthetic incapacity, stereotypy, and "drawing errors." The above draw-
ing deficiencies seem to be attributable to problems in visuospatial percep-
tion, planning, and short-term memory. The specific drawing strategies used
by the children also appear to account for the observed problems. All pa-
rameters under investigation are intercorrelated and also correlated to pre-
schoolers' future reading accuracy in Grade 3 .
Our study showed that most of the "drawing deficient" preschoolers
present with special difficulties in reading in primary school when compared
with the "normally drawing" children. This observation in relation to the
correlations and regression analyses gives us encouraging evidence that eval-
uating the drawing skds of children at preschool age could add to an early
identification of children at risk of learning d~fficulties.
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Accepted June 18, 2001