Those drawings hanging on parents' refrigerators may be an indication of children's intelligence.
According to a study by King's College London, published in Psychological Science, how 4-year-old children draw pictures is indicative of intelligence at 14 years old.
In the study, researchers looked at 7,752 pairs of identical and fraternal twins. They found a link between drawing and intelligence.
At age 4, children were asked to draw a child. Then the figure was ranked on a scale between 0-12 based on the presence of body features. For example, a drawing with two arms, two legs, a body and head would have a rating of 4.
The children were also given intelligence tests at ages 4 and 14.
They found that the children's score on the Draw-a-Child test were moderately associated with higher intelligence at 4 and 14. The researchers expected to see drawing ability correlated with intelligence at age 4, but it was surprising that the association held true a decade later.
"The correlation is moderate, so our findings were interesting, but it does not mean that parents should worry if their child draws badly," said Rosalind Arden lead author of the paper. "Drawing ability does not determine intelligence, there are countless factors, both genetics and environmental, which affect intelligence in later life."
The researchers also looked at the heritability of figure drawing in the twins. Since identical twins share the same genes, whereas non-identical twins only share 50 percent, and they often share a similar upbringing and family environment, researchers are able to examine heritability.
They found that the drawings of 4-year-olds from identical twins were more similar than drawings from fraternal twins.
"This does not mean there is a drawing gene - a child's ability to draw stems from many other abilities, such as observing, holding a pencil etc.," Arden said. "We are a long way off understanding how genes influence all these different types of behavior."
Arden said drawing dates back to ancient practices.
"Through drawing, we are attempting to show someone else what's in our mind," Arden said. "This capacity to reproduce figures is a uniquely human ability and a sign of cognitive ability, in a similar way to writing, which transformed the human species' ability to store information, and build a civilization."
