Can drawings reveal and improve family relationships?

Family is a highly connotative word evoking unspoken emotions in all of us.
It brings meaningful memories to mind and affects us throughout life, whether we are aware of it or not. Often, when we refer to family, we actually speak about family relationships, as they constitute – together with our innate personality – the core of our social background and behavior. Family relationships is a general term composed of a broad range of behaviors and emotions, influenced mainly by the child's personality and social background.

Analysis of children's drawings provides:

  A comprehensive view of family-related behaviors
  An observation of how the child feels about his family
  The analysis uncovers new facts about the child's perception
       his parents have not been aware of.

Learning how the child perceives his family, as well as understanding the root cause of his behavior, is essential to establishing constructive dialog.


Drawing analysis enables in-depth understanding of family relationships from the following angles:

Do children feel part of their families? When a child is asked to draw a family, he is confronted with repressed feelings and opinions about each family member. Drawings tell the story of the family's relationships and dynamics from the child's personal perspective. They reveal affectionate feelings a child has towards other members of his family, as well as dominance and power relations.

Why do children develop negative behavior patterns? Parents may have daily discussions with their children about negative or socially undesirable behaviors. However, the reasons for such behaviors vary among children and may be affected by various factors. Drawings uncover the reasons for children's resistance and misconduct by revealing the social, emotional and personality factors behind them.  

What is the reason for a child's behavioral regression? Every child has a unique development graph, but there are also developmental stages that are typical of most children. Any dramatic or recurring event in family relationships or in the child's life may cause his behavior to regress. For example, the birth of a new sibling or stress at school could cause him to behave differently than before. Drawings analysis will help you find the cause of regression and offer the right solution for the child's difficulty.

Do children to non-heterosexual parents draw differently? Nowadays, there are many types of family structures. Children in those families sometimes experience different realities because of their families' unique structure and social reactions to it. Drawings shed light on their perceptions of their family and may often express its unique characteristics.


In this eBook we discuss the following issues in detail and offer recommendations based on our extensive experience:

Family coalitions – In a family there are often overt and covert coalitions. These sometimes lead to conflicts among family members, who feel that their family atmosphere is not as pleasant as they would have liked it to be. Family drawings include largely unconscious elements that represent these coalitions. Understanding the meaning of these graphic elements will give you the key to revealing the coalitions and providing the best solutions to improve family relationships and atmosphere.

Temper tantrums – This phenomenon is mainly observed at age two, but may occur also at much older ages. For many parents, temper tantrums involve difficult situations and are a cause for deep concern. However, because every child is different, they are expressed in various ways and should therefore be coped with differently. In this section you will understand, through drawings, the possible reasons for temper tantrums and how to cope with them. 

Stubbornness and power struggles – Prolonged struggle with a child may cause his parents to be frustrated and even exhausted. The child's inborn stubbornness might be expressed in negative behavior, due to various reasons. We discuss these reasons and how to approach the child in order to change his reactions, so that good family relationships are restored. 

Childish behavior – Up to this section, our focus was on aggressive behavior and conduct problems. However, some children also tend to act childishly and to embarrass their parents. We discuss this phenomenon, illustrating it through drawings, review several reasons for it and provide solutions. Next, we discuss in detail a related issue, which is spoiling – its causes, outcomes and ways to effectively cope with it.  

Discipline and boundaries – Studies have shown that discipline has long-term benefits for children, although some parents consider maintaining it to be a difficult task. Issues related to setting boundaries and enforcing discipline often wreck havoc in the family atmosphere. In this section we offer our perspective on this issue, based on recent studies, parental guidance and analysis of children's drawings.   

Large families – As you will find out in this section, drawings of children with more than three siblings have unique characteristics. Children in such families have unique perceptions of their parents and siblings. Drawings, in these cases, are an excellent tool for understanding the child's feelings in this complex family structure, as well as family relationships and dynamics.

Same-sex parents – Some people think that children to same-sex parents grow up with sexual tendencies that are affected by their parents'. But is this really the case? This section provides the answer and presents unique examples of drawings made by children to same-sex parents, as well as a detailed overview of these families' unique characteristics. 

Single-parent families – The main difficulty for a child in a single parent family is to maintain clear separation between himself and his parent. In most cases, the single parent is a very significant figure in his child's world a fact that is evidenced not only in the family relationship but also in the child's drawings. You will learn about these special characteristics and view examples of them in real-life children's drawings.
You will learn more about the benefits you will gain from our eBook by visiting our general eBooks page, which includes additional eBooks on various topics related to children's drawings.

What did you have to say about this e-book?
"I want to thank Roshida's team of expert for their sensitive and informative writing on this topic. It was exciting to go over your examples and explanations and see how they can be used as a tool for coping with issues every parent is experiencing"