Exploring children's perceptions of health: does drawing really break down barriers?

A study was conducted in primary schools in London to explore the idea that involving children in drawing as well as writing provided greater insights into their health perceptions than writing alone. Three approaches were used: write only, draw-and-write and label-and-write. All methods provided roughly the same number of categories of response but write-only identified categories more quickly while draw-and-write revealed more on how ideas were interlsnked. Label-and-write provided more information on physical signs of health or ill health and the appearance and use of drugs and foodstuffs. Drawings helped to decipher poor hahdwriting. These findings imply that no single method is best in all contexts and that an imaginative combination of drawing and writing can balance the strengths and limitations of each method. However, the choice of methods must be determined primarily by the questions to be answered and the situational constraints.