ABSTRACT
Ray Jackendoff (1994) calls language a ‘window on consciousness’. Drawing and other forms of visual representation are also ‘windows on consciousness’. Like language, they do not reflect the child’s thinking directly; there will always be differences between competence and performance. Additionally, the type, content and possibilities of thinking are constrained by the systems in which they are encoded. It is not possible to think about thinking without enlisting a semiotic system, nor is it possible to conceive of thinking independently of the forms of representation and symbolism in which it is encoded. However, by exactly the same token, because drawing and interactions with other visual media show this process of representation unfolding, they do show us something of the process of thinking. They do tell us something about how the child learns about the nature of representation. They tell us about how shapes on a page, or actions in the air, are enjoyed as structures in themselves yet also refer to events, objects and ideas beyond the drawing surface or playground; how a movement of the body can represent the movement of a wave, a cloud, an aeroplane.
