Abstract
The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of verbal supports on children's "as if" drawings. Four-year-old and five-year-old children performed "as if" drawing involving 3 conditions. Conditions were designed to force Contour, Parts, and Control. In the Contour condition, children were presented the verbal supports that emphasized the similarity of a contour (e.g. "this form resembles a mouse"). In the Parts condition, children were presented verbal supports that emphasized the similarity of a part of a concrete object (e.g. "this form resembles the stem and petal of a flower"). In the Control condition, children were not presented any verbal supports. The major findings were that the four-year-old children in Contour drew emotional and imaginative pictures more than children in Parts and Control groups, and the five-year-old children in Parts drew those pictures more than children in Control. These results suggested that four-year-old and five-year-old children have a developmental difference in imagery of form of objects.
