There is an issue of developing high-quality diagnostic research methods in relation to children since high-quality methods provide a complete system view of the children's mental abilities. Therefore, regarding children, it is highly required to pay attention to creative methods of diagnosis.

Psychological testing as a field of science originated at the end of the last century. The founder of the testing movement is considered to be Francis Galton, who published the scientific work "Studies in Human Ability and Their Development" (1883), which defines three basic principles of testing:

• application of series of the same tests to a large number of people;

• statistical processing of the obtained data;

• choice of evaluation standards (Galton, 1975).

At first, drawing tests were not considered to be reliable tools for measuring personality characteristics, therefore they were used as additional techniques for assessing the level of intellectual development. After a while, accumulated data on the use of drawing tests helped to find out that the qualitative characteristics of drawings correlate with the personal characteristics of a person, while the quantitative characteristics correspond with mental abilities” (Qualitative and quantitative methods ..., 2014).

When interpreting children's drawings, it is necessary to take into account their age and individual differences, as well as the child's behavior during testing. It is also important to note that differences in technique may be related not so much to the ability of the child, but to how adults taught the child to draw. In any case, the main characteristic feature of children's drawings is abstraction, that is, drawing, the child "tells" about his speculative picture of the world, generalizes his understanding of the world order.

Children's drawings have been of interest to researchers since the late 19th century. By tracing the development of children's drawings, the researchers found that children's drawings become more detailed and realistic as they get older. For example, when children start drawing the human figure at about 3-4 years old, they usually start by drawing a picture of a «tadpole» or «head-and-legs». That is, they represent the head and body as one figure, and often represent the arms and legs as one pair of lines. By the time children graduate from preschool, they begin to distinguish between different body parts and draw them in the correct place. Between the ages of 7 and 11, children begin to pay more attention to the details of the drawing, such as clothing, accessories, and hairstyles, usually creating realistic drawings of the human figure when they reach the age of 10-12.

Observing a child's behavior during testing also provides very valuable information, so it is very important to record the child's behavioral responses. Sometimes, after instruction is given, the child may feel unsure about how to do the task and tries to deal with his anxiety in various ways. The child may ask clarifying questions, may say that he does not know how to draw at all. In such a situation, you should encourage the child, without going beyond the instructions for the task.

Thus, the purpose of our study is to examine the effectiveness of Maria Alexandrovich's program on Russian schoolchildren, and we tackled the following questions: 1. How to diagnose it, 2. Do creative methods really affect mental development.

Experimental work was carried out on the basis of the municipal budgetary educational institution "Secondary school No. 1" of the Vakhitovsky district of Kazan city. The participants of the experimental work were pupils of grades 1 and 2 at the age of 7-8 years: the experimental group was represented by 30 children, including 13 boys and 17 girls; the control group is represented by 27 children, including 12 boys and 14 girls. There are many different methods evaluating the development of intellectual functioning. When choosing methods for conducting diagnostics, we chose the Draw-a-Person test, which was developed by Florence Goodenough. The advantage of this method is that the testing procedure differs from traditional methods, primarily in that the graphic and creative activity for the children is more understandable and close. It does not require exceptional and volitional efforts, and also does not create neuropsychic stress for them. Drawing for a child is always playful. In the early years of schooling, indicators of fine motor development and intellectual development may be underdeveloped. This may be due to the insufficient level of readiness for schooling, the predominance of play activities, and the insufficient formation of motives for schooling. In accordance with this, a set of measures is needed to be aimed at the development of fine motor skills and intellectual development. At the initial stages of learning, the condition for the development of the child continues to be play, communication and activity, but for the intellectual development of children in the context of the relationship between intelligence and fine motor skills, it is important to focus on the methods of plasticineography and drawing. The main tasks of the system of classes aimed at the development of fine motor skills, using the means of plasticineography and drawing, are: 1. Teaching children to coordinate hand movements in accordance with the created image. 2. Formation of creative abilities, broadening the pupil’s horizons. 3. Creation of images of reality, development of imagination, independence of thinking. In the classes of plasticineography, methods of conversation, observation, game activity, project method, demonstration and explanation, etc. can be additionally used. Classes can be organized in individual, frontal and collective forms, include theoretical and practical parts.

A low level of intellectual development was found in 23% of boys and 12% of girls. A possible reason for the underdevelopment of ideas about a person’s drawing may be insufficiently close relationships with parents, their little interest in hand-drawn art. This allows us to assume that girls, may feel insecure, perhaps they’re emotionally immature and lacking in independence. 62% of boys in the study group had the average level of intellectual development. Among girls, the average level had 65%. Their idea of body parts coincides with the age norm. They know how to perceive criticism in their address, but they may also have fear and a desire to isolate themselves from others. 15% of boys and 23% of girls had a high level of intellectual development. The result shown by the boys in the drawings of hands (8%) may indicate some helplessness and dependence on others. The quality of the girls' hand drawings may indicate that they're ambitious (24%). In the drawings of boys, there're more (38%) than in the drawings of girls (18%) indicators of physical strength or need for power. Girls more often (53%) than boys (23%) show indicators of the importance of external signs of social status. In general, the quality of the drawings indicates the greatest emotional maturity and independence of children in this group. Thus, the results show us the differences in the quality of boys’ and girls’ drawings in general, as well as in the quality of their drawings of individual details. These obtained data allowed us to distinguish 3 groups according to the level of intellectual development. The manifestation of sexual dimorphism show that the girls' drawings are more complete, contain more decorative elements, and the boys' drawings are rather sketchy but more dynamic in comparison with the girls' drawings.

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