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It has not been scientifically clarified whether there are primordial symbols that are passed into the cradle of virtually every human being, regardless of culture. We tend to think that symbols are learned in a culture-specific way in the course of socialisation. Against this background, it is not responsible to attribute our adult, predominantly culture-specific understanding of symbols to children without looking at them or to suspect that the child has used a corresponding symbol "unconsciously" to communicate something "forbidden".

If we do not know certain framework conditions, we should be very careful with interpretations. This necessarily includes the context in which a drawing was created, the social development context of the child and the cultural influences. But the availability of drawing materials also play a role or seasonal influences in the case of motifs.

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If the mother is painted much larger than the father, this does not necessarily indicate the greater importance or dominance of the mother in the family, but can also be simply due to the drawing situation, the space still available for the father or simply the limited drawing skills. 

Prof. Dr. phil. Elfriede Billmann-Mahecha, The child´s perspective: What di children tell us with their pictures?, 2014, published in „Kinder zeichnen ihre Welt“, Verlag das Netz

But why do children from different cultures have different heights on average?

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In Western middle-class families, where family members tend to view themselves and others as individuals and less connected to their family, each family member needs a great deal of personal space and the ability to express their individuality.

In contrast, families in rural areas see themselves more as a social unit...........Individuality, one's own interests and preferences are put on the back burner more in this cultural context. This means that relatively large self-portraits are to be found above all where the individual is particularly valued; comparatively smaller self-portrayals can be found where the community is in the foreground. 

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Even today, when interpreting children's drawings it is often not taken into account that children who grow up in different cultures differ in their self-experience and in their relationship to others - and above all that these differences are reflected in the children's drawings. For example, whether children tend to draw themselves tall or small, whether they tend to emphasize head or body details, or whether they portray their characters laughing or neutral, depends to a large extend on the cultural context they grow up.

Dr. Ariane Gernhardt, Children's drawings in cultural comparison, 2014, published in „Children draw their world“, Verlag das Netz