Skill, content and generative strategies in autistic children's drawings

Abstract

The drawing skill, picture content and strategies for generating ideas for drawings were compared in 20 drawings collected over the course of one year from 12 relatively able autistic children, not selected for drawing ability, and 12 learning-impaired children. The drawing skills of the two groups and the content of their pictures were very similar. However, the autistic children generated ideas which were more closely related than those of the controls. The implications of the findings for our understanding of autism are discussed.