A new theory on children's drawings: Analyzing the role of emotion and movement in graphical development

•We analyzed scribbling and discovered a clear intention behind young children's gestures.•We reassessed scribbling as a vital part of cognitive and emotional development.•We traced the evolution of the line as a tool that is used to communicate feelings and intentions.•Our results show that there is still much to be learned about meaning-creation and representation in infant behavior.

The aim of this paper is to develop a new understanding of children's drawings and to provide ideas for future research in early childhood. Starting from classic theories on child graphical development, we proceed to analyze them and provide our own views on the subject. We will also recount a number of relevant empirical studies that appear to validate our theory. Our belief is that emotion and self-expression through movement play a key role in the development of child art, and that this may be already visible during the scribbling stage of drawing.