When the researchers followed up a decade later, the same pattern was observed: kids whose drawings got high scores at age four tended to score higher on the intelligence tests at age 14. The researchers also found that drawings from the identical twins in the study were more similar to one another than drawings from non-identical twins, which suggests the link between drawing and later intelligence is influenced by genes.
"I think that there may be a link between early drawing and later intelligence because both ‘good drawing’ and high intelligence indicate a well put together brain," the study's lead author, Dr. Rosalind Arden, a researcher at the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College in London, told The Huffington Post in an email. "Drawing is the end result of lots of cognitive processes: Perception, focus, observation, attention, figuring out how to get a shape down on paper, staying on task."
But Dr. Arden said not to worry if you or your child isn't very good at drawing pictures of people.
"We found evidence of a small link between early drawing and later intelligence," she said in the email. "If you, or your child, are of the Klutz school of drawers, that’s nothing to worry about. Nothing in our data says that parents should do anything but enjoy their kids’ drawings."
The study was published in the current issue of the journal Psychological Science.
source: huffingtonpost.com By Jacqueline Howard