Background: Articles 12 and 13 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC; United Nations 1989) state children have the “freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas”. Drawing enables children to have open-ended expression; drawing can be used as a tool to help understand young children’s feelings and insights about talking.

Aims: The aim of this research was to consider how children draw themselves talking and to analyse the drawings using an interdisciplinary approach.

Method: During the 2022 Early Childhood Voices Conference (ECV2022), children were invited to submit a drawing of themselves talking to someone using the Early Childhood Voices Drawing Protocol. Drawings and explanations were submitted from 200 children from 24 countries, and after children gave assent and parents gave consent, these were uploaded to the Children Draw Talking Global Online Gallery https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2022/children-draw-talking-gallery-1-the-world/. The participants were aged 2–12 years, spoke 23 different languages, and 28.5% of caregivers reported concerns about their children’s talking. Charles Sturt University Human Research Ethics Committee gave approval to analyse the drawings. The interdisciplinary research team consisted of 16 researchers who analysed the drawings using the following frameworks: descriptive, developmental, focal point, meaning making, and systemic functional linguistics transitivity analysis.

Results:

Descriptive. Most participants (79.0%) reported they felt happy about talking. Most children (84.5%) drew themselves talking to at least one conversational partner including friends, mothers, fathers, animals, siblings, other family members, teachers, and a speech-language pathologist.

Developmental. A strong positive correlation was observed between the participants’ age and their ability to draw a human figure.

Focal Point. Focal points included: body parts (head, mouth, eyes, ears, arms/hands) and facial expressions (30.2%); talking and listening (e.g., words, speech bubbles, open mouths) (53.3%); proximity to others (69.8%); relationships and connections (89.3%); and positivity and vibrancy (72.8%).

Meaning Making. The cultural-historical meaning making analysis identified 10 themes: relationships, places, actions, natural elements, human-made elements, cultural experiences, logical thinking, emotion, imagination, and concepts.

Systemic Functional Linguistics Transitivity Analysis. The systemic functional linguistics transitivity analysis identified 71 processes, 134 participants, and 48 circumstances across 50 drawings.

Conclusions: Children across the world use drawing to communicate who they talk to (friends, family, animals, professionals), when and where they talk (outside, at home), what they talk about (toys, animals, friends, family), and how they feel about talking (happy). Interdisciplinary insights enhance professionals’ understanding of children’s communication and can inform assessment and intervention practices.

Implications for children and families: Children have a lot of interesting things to say. Sometimes children can “talk” to adults by drawing them a picture instead of talking.

Implications for practitioners: The Early Childhood Voices Drawing Protocol can be used to invite children to draw themselves talking, providing a catalyst for further discussion with the children, their family, and others about their lives.

Key words: children’s voices, innovations, communication, international communities, qualitative methods, quantitative methods

This presentation relates to the following United Nations Sustainable Development Goals:

• SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being
• SDG 4: Quality Education
• SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities
• SDG 17: Partnerships to Achieve the Goals