Analyzing Children's Art

Book excerpt: Drawing from her study of approximately one million drawings by children, Rhoda Kellogg traces the mental and artistic development of children from infancy to eight years of age, defining and classifying the forms common to children's art throughout the world. Kellogg renders a realistic account of children's art in a variety of media and demonstrates how and why their art develops over time. Incorporating ample visual examples and detailed analyses, this widely cited study provides the essentials to identifying cognitive development and educational needs evidenced in children's art. An indispensable guide for teachers and counselors specializing in early education, "Analyzing Children's Art" demonstrates how art plays an undeniably important role in a child's mental growth. Rhoda Kellogg (1898-1987), nursery school educator and collector of over one million children's drawings, earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Minnesota and a master's degree from Columbia University. Over half of her collection is archived in the Rhoda Kellogg Child Art Collection of the Golden Gate Kindergarten Association. In 1967, Kellogg published a groundbreaking archive of approximately 8,000 drawings by children from the ages of 20 to 40 months and thus became the first to publish an archive of early graphic expressions. As an author, Kellogg applies an in-depth classification system to children's art and emphasizes the development of formal design, which plays a critical role in relation to pictorialism.