Abstract
The research experiment verified the diagnostic possibilities of children's kinetic drawings at learning how the children experience, perceive and evaluate their being ill at home. In a sample of 12 children (6 - 11 years) with an acute disease, the children's view of home environment, the emotional, interpersonal and medical aspects of being ill, of life with an acute disease, and of the ways of managing the illness was explored.
An original method was used that contains 19 aspects for the analysis of the drawn environment, 17 aspects for analysis of the drawn by the child and 1 summarizing aspect for the overall mood of the drawing. This research study did not try to establish individual diagnoses but making use of children's kinetic drawings for exploring supraindividual phenomena, it leads to learning more about the typical forms of children's being ill at home.
The results suggest that children at this age consider common diseases (requiring only home treatment) as a normal part of life. The drawings are dominated by positive mood; sick children feel the social support usually from their parents.