Abstract

INTRODUCTION: The intrapsychic process of resorting to the symbolic is innate and prepares the child for the organization of his internal world. Throughout the child's developmental trajectory, its playful projective expression, allows us to assess the psychographically internalized stages of development. The present study aims to evaluate the mental representation of the concept of symbolism, size, and perspective of designed percepts along the developmental trajectory (age range from 4 to 12 years).

METHODS: Patients were invited to produce two drawings depicting a Healthy Tooth and an Unhealthy Tooth. The qualitative content grid for the analysis of the drawings was originally designed to study the pictorial representations found in the sample. However, in this article, we only intend to present the results obtained regarding Symbolism, Size and Perspective categories that are part of the content analysis grid.

RESULTS: Regarding the Symbolism Category, most respondents between 4 and 6 years of age, pictorially represented an Unrealistic Tooth, and from 10 years onwards there is a marked decrease in this pictorial (Un)Realism. Regarding the Size of Teeth Category, from 8 years old onwards the drawings seem to increase in terms of their dimension. When it comes to Perspective Category, the percept drawn in a 2D perspective clearly prevails, regardless of age.

CONCLUSION: Results obtained in this study show that the mental representation of (Un)Healthy teeth are early internalized during childhood and the stages of psychographic development seem to be reliable indicators of the development of the mental representation of the child´s symbolism.

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