Gross failure to utilise alignment cues in children's drawing of three-dimensional relationships

There are two major ways of classifying the development of children's attempts to represent three-dimensional relationships on the page. One is in terms of discrete drawing systems and the other is in terms of local decisions that have to be taken within more than one system. An observation is made which appears paradoxical for each of these approaches. Nonetheless, study of the observation reveals a systematic relationship with a systems approach. But this cannot be explained without extending the assumptions of a systems approach.