Children with autism spectrum disorders have difficulty in forming and maintaining their relationships with others due to delays and defects in language development, stereotyped behavior, limited interests and cognitive defects, and lack of proper dev...
Children with autism spectrum disorders have difficulty in forming and maintaining their relationships with others due to delays and defects in language development, stereotyped behavior, limited interests and cognitive defects, and lack of proper development. Theses difficulty increase children's anxiety, atrophy, and hinder self-expression and interaction.
Self-expression is an appropriate expression of individual emotions and desires, and the ability to express oneself correctly which is essential for social communication. Only when appropriate self-expression is supported can emotions be shared, communicated, and positive social relationships be achieved. Therefore, this study attempted to analyze how the art therapy experience of children with autism spectrum disorders changed self-expression and intera ction through qualitative research and explore its meaning.
The subject of the study was a 7-year-old boy diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, and art therapy was conducted a total of 36 times from September 2021 to October 2022 with 70 minutes of child treatment and 10 minutes of guardian counseling persession. For the study, the works of participants in each session were left in pictures, and records of recordings and congratulatory words, treatment journals, supervision data, behavioral observation notes recording participants' behavior during the session, and data through counseling with guardians were collected. Data analysis was conducted by applying a qualitative case study method t
hat repeatedly observes and analyzes data such as HTP(Home, Tree, People Test) and freely expressed painting, treatment journals, verbatim record, and supervision data.
As a result of the study, a total of six top subjects and 16 subtopics were derived, and six top topics are <Limits of Expression: Obsession with Sharks: Acceptance of Desire: Satisfaction of Sharks>, <Expansion of Acceptance and Expression: Expansion of Other Topics: Expansion of Expressions to Surroundings: My Family, Friends> and <Expression of Self-Image: Expansion of Self-Expression to Me>.
The research results through the topics derived as above are as follows.
First, children who were not confident in what he wanted to express in the early days of art therapy, and who
were anxious and afraid of drawing, showed limited self-expression by obsessing over the familiar and comfortable theme of "shark." This behavior also appeared in daily life, showing lots of difficulties in commun
icating and sharing stories with family and others.
However, as activities through various media took place in art therapy, children began to properly express their emotions along with various formative expressions, and interest in the external environment began to increase. Children's expressive ability gradually developed and gradually expanded from him-selves to stories about family and friends, and later works showed that interest and expression in the surrounding environment occurred, such as creating stories, playing with friends, and describing family.
Second, at the beginning of the program, children did not acceptthe subject of art therapy, focused only on their interests, failed to respond appropriately to communication with others, and achieved one-sided communication with limited self-expression. However, as art therapy progressed, children who had experienced success and experienced positive interactions disappeared from their rejection of new topics and media, and began to fully accept the topics presented by the researcher. The sense of accomplishment of art began to emerge as a positive interaction with others, with children expressing their family and friends and relationships with others in their paintings, boasting and exhibiting their works to their guardians, and promoting new interactions.
In this study, children on the autism spectrum expressed themselves through art therapy and experienced interactions with their families and peers. However, this study has a limitation in that it is difficult to generalize by applying the experience of the study to all children with disabilities diagnosed with autism spectrum as a
single case. As behavioral changes in autistic children require intensive observation and a lot of time, various qualitative case studies for autistic children are shown in the future. I hope this study will be of great help in the art therapy of autistic children in the future.