Children Draw Talking: Insights from 200 children from 24 countries
Tracks
Concurrent session T2
Assessment
Cultural learning
Culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD)
Early childhood education
Early language
Early years education
Research
School age
Therapy
| Tuesday, May 28, 2024 |
| 2:30 PM - 2:45 PM |
| Meeting Room 01 |
Overview
Sharynne McLeod
Details
⏫ Research insights
đź“š Assumed knowledge of attendees: Foundational (new/casual familiarity with the topic e.g. treated a single case)
đź“š Assumed knowledge of attendees: Foundational (new/casual familiarity with the topic e.g. treated a single case)
Presenter
Professor Sharynne McLeod
Professor
Charles Sturt University
Children Draw Talking: Insights from 200 children from 24 countries
2:30 PM - 2:45 PMPresentation summary
Background: Everyone has the “freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas” “regardless of frontiers” (United Nations, 1948); however, young children are rarely provided the opportunity to impart information about their lives.
Aim: To determine how children from across the world draw themselves talking and apply interdisciplinary analyses to illuminate children’s perspectives.
Method: Participants were 200 children from 24 countries who submitted a drawing and explanation using an adaptation of the Sound Effects Study Drawing Protocol. Drawings were included in the free Children Draw Talking Global Online Gallery. Participants reported they spoke 23 languages (range 1-4). The majority of participants (79%) reported they felt happy about talking and 28.5% of caregivers reported they had concerns about their children’s talking. A 16-member interdisciplinary research team analysed the drawings using the following analysis frameworks: descriptive, developmental, focal point, meaning making, and systemic functional linguistics transitivity.
Results: A strong positive correlation was observed between the participants’ age and their ability to draw a human figure. Most children (84.5%) drew themselves talking to at least one conversational partner including: friends (22%), mothers (16%), fathers (14%), animals (9%), siblings (9%), other family (5%), teachers (3%), and speech pathologists (1%). Focal points included: body parts (head, mouth, eyes) and facial expressions (30.2%); talking and listening (e.g., words, speech bubbles, open mouths) (53.3%); proximity to others (49.1%); relationships and connections (89.3%), and positivity and vibrancy (72.8%). The Meaning Making Analysis using cultural-historical concepts identified ten themes: relationships, places, actions, natural elements, human-made elements, cultural experiences, logical thinking, emotion, imagination, and concepts. The Systemic Functional Linguistics Transitivity Analysis explored 50 drawings with a total of 71 processes, 134 participants, and 48 circumstances.
Conclusion: Children possess the capability to convey complex thoughts through drawing. These insights can inform speech pathologists during their assessment of children's speech and language.
Aim: To determine how children from across the world draw themselves talking and apply interdisciplinary analyses to illuminate children’s perspectives.
Method: Participants were 200 children from 24 countries who submitted a drawing and explanation using an adaptation of the Sound Effects Study Drawing Protocol. Drawings were included in the free Children Draw Talking Global Online Gallery. Participants reported they spoke 23 languages (range 1-4). The majority of participants (79%) reported they felt happy about talking and 28.5% of caregivers reported they had concerns about their children’s talking. A 16-member interdisciplinary research team analysed the drawings using the following analysis frameworks: descriptive, developmental, focal point, meaning making, and systemic functional linguistics transitivity.
Results: A strong positive correlation was observed between the participants’ age and their ability to draw a human figure. Most children (84.5%) drew themselves talking to at least one conversational partner including: friends (22%), mothers (16%), fathers (14%), animals (9%), siblings (9%), other family (5%), teachers (3%), and speech pathologists (1%). Focal points included: body parts (head, mouth, eyes) and facial expressions (30.2%); talking and listening (e.g., words, speech bubbles, open mouths) (53.3%); proximity to others (49.1%); relationships and connections (89.3%), and positivity and vibrancy (72.8%). The Meaning Making Analysis using cultural-historical concepts identified ten themes: relationships, places, actions, natural elements, human-made elements, cultural experiences, logical thinking, emotion, imagination, and concepts. The Systemic Functional Linguistics Transitivity Analysis explored 50 drawings with a total of 71 processes, 134 participants, and 48 circumstances.
Conclusion: Children possess the capability to convey complex thoughts through drawing. These insights can inform speech pathologists during their assessment of children's speech and language.
Key messages
At the conclusion of my presentation, attendees will take away
Key message 1: Children can convey complex thoughts through drawing, and these can be analysed using interdisciplinary approaches.
Key message 2: The use of participatory methods such as draw and tell enable children’s perspectives to be elicited.
Key message 3: Adults should use caution so they do not misinterpret children’s meanings through their drawings.
Key message 1: Children can convey complex thoughts through drawing, and these can be analysed using interdisciplinary approaches.
Key message 2: The use of participatory methods such as draw and tell enable children’s perspectives to be elicited.
Key message 3: Adults should use caution so they do not misinterpret children’s meanings through their drawings.
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Professor Sharynne McLeod, Ph.D. is a speech pathologist and professor of speech and language acquisition at Charles Sturt University, Australia. She has received Life Membership of Speech Pathology Australia and Honors of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. She is an elected Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and the Royal Society of New South Wales, and was an Australian Research Council Future Fellow. She is President of the International Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics Association, a Board Certified Member of the American Board of Child Language and Language Disorders and served as editor of the International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology for 9 years. The Australian Newspaper named her Australia’s Research Field Leader in Audiology, Speech and Language Pathology (2018, 2019, 2020, 2022) and Best in the World based on the “quality, volume and impact” of research in the field (2019, 2023).
Session chair
Lisa Furlong
Student volunteer(s)
Emily Candy
Curtin University
Sophia Jo
Curtin University
The information contained in this program is current at of the time of publishing but is subject to changes made without notice.
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