--- title: How a Child Draws A Person Is Indicative of Their Intelligence description: The number of features a child draws into their sketch of a person may say a little something about their intelligence canonical: https://time.com/3140944/what-kids-drawings-say-about-their-intelligence/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-08-19T13:41:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T09:44:09.566Z article:section: Health og:title: What Kids' Drawings Say About Their Intelligence og:description: The number of features a child draws into their sketch of a person may say a little something about their intelligence og:url: https://time.com/3140944/what-kids-drawings-say-about-their-intelligence/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1e568362ef490b42/69869ffae53aba586b4d40be/77859_web.jpg?branch=production&width=400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 400 og:image:height: 225 og:image:alt: 77859_web og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What Kids' Drawings Say About Their Intelligence twitter:description: The number of features a child draws into their sketch of a person may say a little something about their intelligence twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1e568362ef490b42/69869ffae53aba586b4d40be/77859_web.jpg?branch=production&width=400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # What Kids' Drawings Say About Their Intelligence > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Aug 19, 2014 1:41 PM UTC  Here are examples of children's drawings. Scores are from left to right: Top: 6,10,6; Bottom: 6,10,7. Here are examples of children's drawings. Scores are from left to right: Top: 6,10,6; Bottom: 6,10,7. Twins Early Development Study, King's College London by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Aug 19, 2014 1:41 PM UTC A large and long-term new study shows the way a 4-year-old draws a person not only says something about their level of intelligence as a toddler but is also predictive of their intelligence 10 years down the line. A team of researchers at King’s College London had 7,752 pairs of identical and non-identical 4-year-old twins draw a picture of a child. Every sketch was rated on a scale from 0 to 12 based on the presence of features, like legs, arms, and facial features. The kids also underwent verbal and nonverbal intelligence measurement tests. When the kids turned 14, the researchers once again tested their intelligence. They found that a higher score on their drawing was moderately associated with the child’s intelligence both at age four and at age 14\. The researchers expected to see a connection at age 4, but for the results to have consistency a decade later was surprising. The researchers also found that the drawings of identical twins were more similar than the drawings of non-identical twins, suggesting that a genetic link was involved in drawing, though its exact mechanism was unknown. For instance the kids could be predisposed (or trained) to pay attention to detail well or hold their pencil in a specific way, the researchers say. “The correlation is moderate, so our findings are interesting but it does not mean that parents should worry if their child draws badly,” said study author Dr. Rosalind Arden, the lead author of the paper in a statement. “Drawing ability does not determine intelligence, there are countless factors, both genetic and environmental, which affect intelligence in later life.” The study was published Tuesday in the journal _Psychological Science_. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3140944/what-kids-drawings-say-about-their-intelligence/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3140944/what-kids-drawings-say-about-their-intelligence/"},"headline":"What Kids' Drawings Say About Their Intelligence","datePublished":"2014-08-19T13:41:43.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T09:44:09.566Z","description":"The number of features a child draws into their sketch of a person may say a little something about their intelligence","url":"https://time.com/3140944/what-kids-drawings-say-about-their-intelligence/","keywords":["Research","Children","behavior"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1e568362ef490b42/69869ffae53aba586b4d40be/77859_web.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alexandra Sifferlin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1e568362ef490b42/69869ffae53aba586b4d40be/77859_web.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"77859_web","caption":"Here are examples of children's drawings. 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