Understanding Children&39s Drawings [Hardcover]

This practical resource demonstrates how all clinicians can broaden and enhance their work with children by integrating drawing into therapy. The book enables therapists to address the multidimensional aspects of children's art without resorting to simplistic explanations. Approaching drawing as a springboard for communication and change, Malchiodi offers a wealth of guidelines for understanding the intricate messages embedded in children's drawings and in the art-making process itself. Topics covered include how to assist children in making art, what questions to ask and when, and how to motivate children who are initially resistant to drawing. Assimilating extensive research and clinical experience, the book includes over 100 examples of children's work.

This carefully crafted and sensitive book will undoubtedly become a standard text for all clinicians who work with children. A comprehensive range of timely issues is covered with a balanced, caring tone that only a highly respected and experienced teacher and therapist could produce. Malchiodi ably demonstrates the benefits of graphic expression for the assessment process and the therapeutic hour. Literature reviews and exquisitely presented case examples and illustrations provide an exciting platform for classroom discussion. This clearly written, state-of-the-art book is a welcome contribution to the child mental health field. --Gerald D. Oster, PhD, Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry, University of Maryland Medical School; coauthor ofClinical Uses of Drawings

This multidimensional approach to understanding children's drawings is rich in research, insight, and applications that will be of immense help to those working with traumatized children. --William Steele, MS, MSW, Director, Institute for Trauma and Loss in Children

A wide variety of therapists who work with children, including myself, stock our therapy rooms with toys, art materials, sandtrays, and minl“.