Drawing has value; it carries meaning. This is the focus of our richly illustrated book Children Making Meaning: Exploring Drawings, Narratives and Identities (Routledge, 2024) where we invite adults to listen more closely to children through their drawings.
It positions drawing not as a pastime or an artistic exercise, but as a powerful tool of meaning-making and a language through which children communicate who they are – deep, layered, and meaningful. It shows the value of drawing as a portal to children’s worlds and identities, offering profound insight into how they use drawing and narratives to express meaning, emotion, and identity.
Drawing as a language of identity
A child’s scribble are never ‘just’ random marks. Drawing is a personal, symbolic, narrative act. It is a child’s way of interpreting and making sense of the world, of expressing what they know, what and how they feel and who they are. Whether drawing a knight, a house, a heart on fire or a self-portrait, children construct stories that are real, imagined or somewhere in between.
Exploring children’s drawings is a discovery of layers of meaning: sometimes clear, sometimes subtle, sometimes symbolic, sometimes surprising – but always, deeply significant. Children do not just draw pictures − they draw themselves: their memories, their questions, their hopes, their identities.
Children use their drawings as tools of identity, to show how they think about themselves and their worlds. In this way, children are culturally situated agents whose drawings carry many layers of meaning about experiences, values, and self-understanding, revealing ways of being, doing and becoming.
When educators, caregivers or parents sit beside children as they draw, watching their gestures and expressions, and listening to them talking about their drawings, they are not simply witnessing marks being made on paper, but they are invited into a child-made world of meaning-making, where image and narrative intertwine to reveal rich layers of meaning. Drawing then takes a form of conversation, an evolving narrative and a reflection of identity.
The book, which features the drawings of three Maltese children, argues that drawing is:
• Meaningful – communicating experiences and emotions;
• Fluid – constantly revised and transformed by children;
• Conversational – offering dialogue with materials and people;
• Narrative – telling stories of joy, loss, fear and hope;
• Identity – showing who a child is, was, is becoming, or wishes they were;
• Dynamic – shaped by movement, silence, gesture and sound.
Drawings are a portal – into children’s thoughts and worldviews.
Each drawing, like a pattern in a kaleidoscope, is unique, deeply symbolic and personally significant. Children do not just draw pictures but themselves: their stories, their questions, their dreams.
Children as meaning-makers
At the heart of the book is a powerful message: children are not passive recipients of knowledge about their world, but active meaning-makers. Their drawings reveal complex understandings of concepts like justice, fear, love, good and evil; long before they are able to articulate these themes in language.
We urge adults to resist the temptation to interpret drawings on behalf of children; adults’ understanding of a drawing must be done with, not for, children. Ask open-ended questions, invite explanation, build meaning in dialogue with a child. Listening to children’s descriptions and engaging in respectful dialogue reveals insights that adults may otherwise misinterpret or overlook.
This approach challenges deficit views of early childhood development and shows that children even as young as four or five years are capable of philosophical thought, ethical reflection, and social commentary through their drawing and narratives.
“We must learn to understand what a drawing means to children and to value their drawings as meaningful expressions”
As educators, researchers, psychologists and parents who work with young children, we are called to listen. We must learn to understand what a drawing means to children and to value their drawings as meaningful expressions.
Through their drawings children are trying to tell or ask us something − if only we take the time to listen. Through drawing, children do not just reflect who they are; they are also becoming or imagining who they are.
Listening to children drawing
If we pause and truly listen to children while they draw, we begin to understand who they are, how they feel, where they belong in their communities, who their families are to them and what is important to them. When parents, educators or researchers spend time with young children while they draw, the process becomes a point of connection and discovery.
Drawing becomes a way of seeing and knowing each child in their full wholeness. We are reminded that every drawing is a message; one that deserves to be heard.
From drawing to pedagogy: A funds of knowledge approach
Building on the “funds of knowledge” concept, the book proposes pedagogical practices that honour each child’s cultural background, home life and personal interests.
Drawing in early childhood is not a skill to be taught or refined; it is a child’s way of making meaning, to express their lived experiences, questions, fantasies and unique identities.
Educators and parents are encouraged to resist directing children to draw specific things. Instead, they should create free-drawing environments where children are at liberty to draw what is significant for them.
Their drawing freedom is essential. It turns drawing into an open-ended practice; rich in emotion, imagination and value.
A pedagogy rooted in children’s funds of knowledge (including what they know, their cultural heritage, their family life and friendships), recognises children’s visual narratives as knowledge to be respected. This challenges educators, parents and those who work with young children, to listen, observe and respond to children, using their drawings as a foundation for meaningful learning.
Final reflections
If we may offer advice, we urge adults working with young children:
• Not to be afraid to listen to children, even if you are unsure how. Trust them. Children will teach you.
• Slow down, take a step back, observe, ask and listen to children. Children’s drawings often hold more depth that we realise; children will show us who they are.
• Take time to know children in their social and cultural context, begin to understand their marks on paper as rich with meaning. In children’s drawings, the simple is complex and the complex is simple. Children’s seemingly simple drawings can carry complex meanings, while the complexity of children’s drawings is simple to understand.
An invitation to rethink drawing
Children Making Meaning challenges us to reconsider how we view children’s drawings, not as incomplete marks or developmental milestones, but as powerful, narrative-rich expressions of identity, emotion and thought.
The book urges educators, parents and those working with young children to respect drawing as a form of agency, identity, and voice; and to cultivate classroom practices that listen and build a dialogue around what children themselves choose to represent.
For anyone interested in early years pedagogy, multimodal communication and inclusive, child-led learning, this book offers both insight and inspiration.
Josephine Deguara is a senior lecturer and researcher in early childhood education at the Department of Early Childhood and Primary Education, at the Faculty of Education, University of Malta. Cathy Nutbrown, professor emeritus of the School of Education at the University of Sheffield, UK, is a leading academic and internationally renowned researcher in early childhood education.
For more parenting-related articles, click here. For more Child stories, follow this link.
