Assesses intelligence without relying on verbal ability.

The Goodenough-Harris Drawing Test is assumed to assess intelligence without relying on verbal ability. It is administered individually or in groups to children aged 3-15 and consists of Draw-a-Man and Draw-a-Woman Tests and an optional Self-Drawing Test. (The Draw-a-Person Test, which consists of the same tasks, is a separate test with a different scoring system and is available in two different versions, either as a psychological test for emotional disorders (SPED) or a measure of mental ability (QSS). In contrast, the Goodenough-Harris Drawing Test is used only as an intelligence test.) The Goodenough-Harris test is untimed but usually takes about 15 minutes. For all subtests, the child is asked specifically to draw the entire body rather than just the head and shoulders. He or she can erase and start over and, when the test is given individually, talk to the examiner about any of the drawings. The test is evaluated on the basis of 73 scorable criteria, with separate norms for males and females. Raw scores for the Draw-a-Man and Draw-a-Woman tests (but not for the Self-Drawing Test) are converted to standardized scores.

For Further Study

Books

Cohen, Libby G., and Loraine J. Spenciner. Assessment of Young Children. New York: Longman, 1994.

McCullough, Virginia. Testing and Your Child: What You Should Know About 150 of the Most Common Medical, Educational, and Psychological Tests. New York: Plume, 1992.

Mortensen, Karen Vibeke. Form and Content in Children's Human Figure Drawings: Development, Sex Differences, and Body Experience. New York: New York University Press, 1991.