The purpose of this study is to find out the effect of art therapy with activities of physical expression on physical self-concept of mentally retarded children. Details are following;
First, what effect dose art therapy with activities of physical e...
The purpose of this study is to find out the effect of art therapy with activities of physical expression on physical self-concept of mentally retarded children. Details are following;
First, what effect dose art therapy with activities of physical expression have on physical self-concept of mentally retarded children?
Second, how does art therapy with activities of physical expression improve Gross-Motor and Fine-Motor movement of mentally retarded children?
Third, how does art therapy with activities of physical expression improve mentally retarded children's artistic expression?
Objects of the study were two mild mentally retarded children showing slow progress in cognition, language, sociality, and motility. Particularly, they had much difficulty with moving their bodies due to lack of motility. Sessions were held twice a week for 4 weeks, and every session lasted about 45 minutes, and both children had activities separately . The test of physical self-concept, the test of Gross-Motor & Fine-Motor, and K-HTP(Kinetic-house-Tree-Person) were used as the implements of the pre and post tests.
The consequences of the study through the results from pre test and post test of those were following;
First, Though, there were distinctions between progress of subordinate parts of the physical self-concept such as body motility, health, appearance, and physical strength, there was no doubt that the physical self-concept of the children was improved through art therapy with activities of physical expression.
Second, those activities improved Gross and Fine Motor motility of the children. It wasn't a significant improvement but it helped them feel less distress from moving their body. Addition training to ease the activities such as practicing clear movements provided them with confidence and increased interest.
Third, those activities can also be the very source accelerating artistic expressing skills. The result of K-HTP Test clearly showed the improvement of body expression skills and body schema mainly appeared as a feature after having those activities.
These results suggest that art therapy with activities of physical expression has an effect on physical self-concept of mentally retarded children and programs which can boost improvements in physical self-concept and body expression skills and lead to physical, emotional, cognitional, and social improvements of mentally retarded children can be used to improve their quality of life.