ABSTRACT
The psychological assessment of the withdrawn child will need to address two separate questions. First, whether the child’s intellectual functioning is in the learning difficulty range on standardised tests; and second, whether emotional difficulties are seriously handicapping the child’s educational performance. The assessment of drawing ability and the interpretation of drawings are both techniques which can be especially useful in the case of some withdrawn children who are reluctant to respond verbally. The use of children’s drawings to make judgements about the child’s emotional difficulties moves the assessment into the more uncertain area of projective testing. There are many withdrawn children who will cooperate enough to give ‘yes’ or ‘no’ responses to questionnaires or to fill in the forms themselves. For these children the assessment session can be used to collect information about their personality characteristics and social skills.
