To know a child's intelligence, a new study suggests looking at their drawings to gauge their intellectual capability.

For this study, researchers conducted a "Draw-A-Child" test were parents ask their four-year-old kids to draw a picture of a child.

Children's drawings are scored between 0 to 12 depending on the presence and correct quantity of features like eyes, nose, mouth, ears, hair, body and arms.

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The highest scores children got from the Draw-a-Child test show their probable intelligence from ages 4 to 14.

Rosalind Arden from King's College London says that since the 1920s, this test has been used to asses a child's intelligence.

The fact that the test correlated with intelligence at age four was expected. What's surprising is that the test can be used to gauge intelligence a decade later, she explained.

She said that parents should not worry if their child draws badly because a child's drawing abilities is not only the determining factor of a child's intelligence.

There are countless factors, both generic and environmental, which can affect intelligence later in life, Arden added.

Researchers also found heritability of figure drawing on identical twins and fraternal twins that participated in the test.

They said that identical twins share all their genes whereas fraternal twins only share about 50 percent.

Each pair had a similar upbringing, family environment and access to the same material, researchers said.

They found out drawing from identical twin pairs were more similar to one another than drawings of fraternal twins.

Differences in children's drawings have an important genetic link, they explained.

Despite this, researchers stressed that there is no drawing gene because a child's drawing ability may come from different factors such as observing other people draw and the way they hold a pencil.

Arden explained that they are still a long way off understanding how genes influence the different types of behavior.

She said that their research is tapping over an ancient behavior that date backs 15,000 years ago.

The capacity to reproduce figures is a unique human ability and a sign of cognitive ability which is similar to writing, she said.

Drawing can transform human's ability to store information and build a civilization, she added.