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Is realistic drawing talent common among students with autism spectrum disorder? How can this be proved?

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Students, both ASD and non-ASD, were tested on drawing ability, memory, and creative ability. This study was considered to be experimental, simply because the task would change but the subjects wouldn't.

Three objects were chosen to be figures of study placed amongst all students. Students were given so many minutes per task to complete drawings/tasks to the best of their abilities.

Students were asked to complete a questionnaire stating the years of experience prior to this experiment.

"Participants completed the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ) (Baron-Cohen et al. 2001), a self-report measure that assesses autistic-like traits in non-clinical settings" (Drake and Winner).

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Students were given a pencil with no eraser and were asked to copy 4 drawings, 2 with objects and 2 with non-objects. Students were given three minutes to copy the pictures.

"For each third, the number of local and global features correctly copied was calculated. This enabled us to determine whether participants with drawing talent drew local features before global ones, a tendency reported in individuals with ASD (Mottron et al. 1999)" (Drake and Winner).

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Objects included corkscrew, six connected and transparent cylinders, and a branch of leaves. Students were given basic white paper, a pencil, and an eraser. Within 15 minutes they were expected to have completed their piece. This would then be graded based on the basic elements and principles of art. The total amount of points possible is 13. All students fully completed the realistic study. Scores would range from 0%-100%.

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Students were given a square box with red and white figures and were asked to break apart the square box into 4 smaller, equal boxes. This would make a similar image to the initial box that they had been exposed to.

"Time limit differed by number of blocks to be used: 120, 180 and 240 s for 4, 9, and 16 blocks respectively. Participants were presented with 18 unsegmented items and 18 segmented items... Participants received one point for each design correctly constructed, and construction times were recorded" (Drake and Winner).

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Study included 42 undergraduate students. 30 women and 12 men. Ages from 18-21. Participants came from middle to upper middle class, well-educated families.

Data was collected through survey, interview, and points systems. Each student was asked about their personal artistic history, studied while completing each task/test, and were evaluated equal to everyone else through a points system. Each points system was different for each task/test.

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Students were given a geometric shape and had to find the shape within an intricate figure.

"They were told that when they saw the shape they should trace the geometric shape within the complex figure. To succeed, one must avoid the global pattern and focus on the local details." (Drake and Winner).

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"We conclude that adults who score higher in the ability to draw realistically show the same kind of local processing bias that has been found in individuals with ASD" (Drake and Winner).

This study concludes that although the AQ test scores may have been lower in comparison, the scores from the AQ test did provide information that there was in fact a complex memorization for design.

This study has shown that children with ASD do have a talent for drawing due to their visually perceptive functions in the brain. Drake and Winner ended with two theories about why ASD children have knack for drawing.

"ASD individuals with drawing talent may demonstrate performance consistent with enhanced perceptual functioning and ASD individuals without drawing talent may demonstrate performance consistent with weak central coherence" (Drake and Winner).

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It is no hidden secret that art affects everyone in this world. Think of movies, comic books, book covers, music albums, magazines, textbooks, etc. All of these have artistic integrity. Graphic designers, painters, animators and more spend their days creating work to inspire, motivate, and entice their viewers.

Graphic designers, such as I, spend a lot of time analyzing the smaller parts of a whole, such as magazine spreads. Column by column and row by row. Learning that small details impact the greater parts is not as easy as it seems. The block design task is a perfect example of smaller parts, making a greater whole.

This can be learned, but it can also be a gift. If ASD students, or other disabled students, know they have a particular gift in this world, such as drawing or visual organization, shouldn't we try to encourage them towards their natural artistic ability if they desire?

And if not, shouldn't implementing more design-like practices (such as group embedded figure test) in schoolwork be beneficial to ASD students? With more research we may be able to find more specific and encouraging ways to test and help, not only ASD students but other students.

No matter what, art affects us whether we mean for it to or not. It's natural. We see pretty colors and our brains are intrigued. We see a beautiful design and think to ourselves, "That's interesting." Art is meant to be intriguing, genuine, scholarly, and systematic. Students, ASD or non-ASD could be benefitting by learning from art or at least art-inspired practices.

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One particular aspect of this study that I did appreciate was the ability of the researchers to realize that drawing can have many different ways of being seen. Some draw with a more linear, systematic approach and others draw with a more free, organic approach. I feel that it is important to keep in mind that drawing can be viewed in many ways, and not only it is how our mind "sees" objects but also how are mind connects to our hands and allowed ours hands to also "see" the objects.

In a way I wish the researchers would have also included a standing drawing portion to their research. It would interesting to see how ASD students would react to drawing their objects. Standing includes a third perspective, aside from visual perspective and motion, but a sense of space between you and your object. It becomes much more three-dimensional, which can be a harder concept to grasp.

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Drake, J. E., & Winner, E. (2010). Realistic Drawing Talent in Typical Adults is Associated with the Same Kind of Local Processing Bias Found in Individuals with ASD. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 41(9), 1192-1201. doi:10.1007/s10803-010-1143-3

Mottron, L., Belleville, S., & Menard, E. (1999). Local bias in autistic subjects as evidenced by graphic tasks: Perceptual hierarchization or working memory deficit? Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 40, 743-755.