What Does the DAP:IQ Measure?: Drawing Comparisons between Drawing Performance and Developmental Assessments.

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Educational Psychology

Background:

• Human figure drawing tasks, like the Draw-a-Person test, have historically been employed to assess intelligence.
• The Draw-a-Person Intellectual Ability test (DAP:IQ) rubric is a standardized method for scoring these drawings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the specific skills underlying performance on human figure drawing tasks.
• To identify risk factors associated with lower scores on these tasks.

Main Methods:

• The study analyzed self-portraits from 345 preschool children.
• Raters used the DAP:IQ rubric to score the drawings.
• Children's fine motor, gross motor, social, cognitive, and language skills were assessed.

Main Results:

• Fine motor skill emerged as the sole independent predictor of DAP:IQ scores.
• Being male and having a low birth weight were associated with lower DAP:IQ scores.
• The DAP:IQ may not be a valid measure of overall cognitive ability.

Conclusions:

• The DAP:IQ can serve as a valuable screening tool for identifying fine motor disturbances in at-risk populations, such as low birth weight boys.
• Future research using human figure drawing tasks should incorporate the assessment of fine motor skills alongside intelligence measures.