Abstract
This study aims to interpret "paintings of prenatal memories" and to verify the effect of mother-child workshops in which these pictures were drawn. "Paintings of prenatal memories" are pictures drawn by children about their memories of being in their mother's womb or the time of their birth. In these drawings, the light, sound, water, umbilical cord, and children's state of being while enveloped in their mother's womb are expressed as zigzag lines, double circles, and mandala patterns, which seem to be meaningful symbols for both mothers and children. The activity of drawing these memories is thought to be useful to stimulate young children's expression and to help mothers and children become aware of their ideal relationship. In this paper, through an analysis of the paintings drawn at the workshops titled "Let's Recall the Time When We Were in Our Mother's Womb-the Drawing of the Mother-Child Bond-Prenatal Memories", the following points were made clear: (1) it is possible to interpret children's drawings by classifying their words about their fetal memories into the three categories of "five senses", "emotion", and "posture and movement of fetus", and to identify drawing patterns and symbols corresponding to each of these categories; and (2) the workshops were effective both in increasing young children's interest in expression activities and in strengthening the mother-child bond.
