Children's drawing is a fascinating topic with a wide-ranging appeal, and this well-written and well-informed book will be very useful to students and researchers of child development and art education, as well as being accessible to the general reader.
Dr Maureen Cox, Emeritus Reader, Department of Psychology, University of York
A long time in the making, this book was well worth waiting for. It is unusual in the range of topics it covers and the importance it accords to the field .
Norman Freeman, Emeritus Professor and Senior Research Fellow, Cognitive Development, University of Bristol
Psychologist Richard Jolley takes the reader on a fascinating journey, using children's drawings and their understanding of pictures as a way to understand children's minds.
Ellen Winner, Professor of Psychology, Boston College, and Senior Research Associate, Project Zero, Harvard University
Summary
In Children and Pictures Richard P. Jolley critiques both the historical and contemporary studies conducted in the field of children's making and understanding of pictures.
Some highlights of Children and Pictures are:
- What develops, and why, in children's representatational and expressive drawing, both in typical, atypical, and cross-cultural populations.
- The developing relationship between production and comprehension of pictures.
- Children's understanding of pictures as symbolic representations.
- Practical and applied uses of drawings, particularly in clinical and legal settings.
- Diverse educational practices of teaching drawing across the world.
Presenting up-to-date research and pointing towards future topics of study, Children and Pictures brings the study of children's drawings into mainstream child development studies. This is an edifying resource for students, researchers, practitioners, parents, artists, and educators in the field.
Endorsements
The following quotes are official endorsements of the book as they appear on the book cover.
"Children's drawing is a fascinating topic with a wide-ranging appeal, and this well-written and well-informed book will be very useful to students and researchers of child development and art education, as well as being accessible to the general reader. In ten clearly laid out chapters Richard Jolley gives an up-to-date overview of some of the debates in the field, an overview amply supported by research findings. In a further and final chapter he suggests "future directions" which, I'm sure, will provide food for thought for many of the up-and-coming generation of researchers."
Dr Maureen Cox, Emeritus Reader, Department of Psychology, University of York
"A long time in the making, this book was well worth waiting for. It is unusual in the range of topics it covers and the importance it accords to the field. It can serve both as an introduction for new readers and as a resource for established researchers, which is extraordinarily hard to bring off. This is because the author is clearly conducting a dialogue with the reader throughout, in a gracefully styled stream of writing."
Norman Freeman, Emeritus Professor and Senior Research Fellow, Cognitive Development, University of Bristol
"Psychologist Richard Jolley takes the reader on a fascinating journey, using children's drawings and their understanding of pictures as a way to understand children's minds. This book will enlighten researchers, clinicians, educators, and parents - anyone who wants to understand why children draw in the sometimes odd, almost always charming, way that they do."
Ellen Winner, Professor of Psychology, Boston College, and Senior Research Associate, Project Zero, Harvard University
About the Author
Richard Jolley was born in Suffolk, in 1964. After a less than interesting six years in accountancy he undertook a degree in psychology at the University of York, UK (1988-1991). It is there where his interest in children's drawings began, studying the development of representational drawing for his undergraduate project. He then completed a PhD in children's drawing and understanding of emotion in pictures at the University of Birmingham, UK (1991-1995).
Richard was appointed to his first lecturing post in the Department of Psychology at Staffordshire University, UK in 1995, and became Senior Lecturer in 1999. Since joining the department he has continued and broadened his research interests in the topic of children and pictures, taking a variety of perspectives including developmental, cognitive, clinical, educational, aesthetic and cross-cultural. He has published in a wide range of journals and spoken at many conferences.
The book Children and Pictures, published in 2009, is the culmination of his research and knowledge of the wider literature, and provides and intergrative and wide-ranging account of the child's pictorial world.
To learn more about Richard and his work click here
