The way children draw at the age of four can be a predictor of later intelligence, a study has suggested.
Researchers asked 7,752 pairs of twins to draw a picture of a child which was then scored by the number of features such as head, legs, hands and feet.
The children were also asked by the King's College, London team to complete intelligence tests at age four and 14.
They found a moderately strong link between higher drawing scores and the later intelligence test results.
The team, led by Dr Rosalind Arden, of King's College's Institute of Psychiatry, used a Draw-a-Child test devised in the 1920s to assess children's intelligence at the age of four.
Dr Arden said: "Drawing is an ancient behaviour, dating back beyond 15,000 years ago. Through drawing, we are attempting to show someone else what's in our mind.
"This capacity to reproduce figures is a uniquely human ability and a sign of cognitive ability, in a similar way to writing, which transformed the human species' ability to store information, and build a civilisation."
She said it was no surprise the test results correlated with the verbal and non-verbal intelligence tests taken at age four.
But added: "What surprised us was that it correlated with intelligence a decade later.