The Pictorial World of the Child

In this lavishly illustrated book, Maureen Cox gives a comprehensive and scholarly account of children's understanding and appreciation of art and their developing ability to produce their own pictures. She discusses the main influences on children's picture-making, including the popular media, adults' examples and other children's pictures. As well as discussing the artistic development of typically developing children, the book also includes a discussion of children with intellectual disabilities and those with a talent for art, some of whom are children with autism. We tend to think of pictures as a strictly visual medium, but the section on blind children's ability to recognise pictures challenges this assumption. Cox evaluates the way that various professional groups use children's pictures, for example to aid recall of past events. Finally, she discusses the art curricula in different countries and different educational philosophies and suggests ways in which these different approaches could be evaluated.