Art Therapy in Children and its Effectiveness

Art Therapy in Children and its Effectiveness

Introduction

Art therapy is simply defined as the specialized dimension of mental health that applies the materials associated with the art as a way of exploring the emotions, increasing the self-esteem, and reducing the anxiety, Art therapy is generally said to have the goal of resolving the psychological issues associated with the human beings under all categories, young and adult (Bazargan & Pakdaman, 2016). Art therapists have been said to have contributed to the improvement of self-esteem, emotions, management of the addictions, reducing stress, and helping the people with physical illness among the children, youth, and also the adults. In most cases, children pass through difficult times before they become mature. There are those born with disabilities, and others are subjected to stress, depression, and trauma (Ugurlu et al., 2016). Those children face a lot of problems in the societies they grow up in. Some people even stigmatize those children hence finding it difficult to live like the other normal human beings. Those children need great support and care from all the society members for them to feel that they have their roles in society. One way to help them is the application of art therapy. Psychologists have argued that art therapy can help improve the mental status of the children with a recommendable percentage (Bazargan & Pakdaman, 2016). In this case, the psychologists apply the artworks to teach the children in a way that they would easily understand. This paper, therefore, addresses how art therapy helps the children based on the grounds of its applications, how it works, its effectiveness, and how the approach is made in society.

A brief overview of how art therapy helps children

Children with mental health problems or disabilities find it difficult to express their feelings in clinical settings. The children with mental illness are characterized by the difficulties of using the needed vocabulary, poor communication skills, and even totally not understanding the language that is being communicated in the healthcare scenarios (Bazargan & Pakdaman, 2016). In order to improve the mental health of children with those disabilities, psychologists are needed. The common method that has been working over the years, as has been noted in the introduction part, is the use of art therapy. Psychologists use art therapy to the children in order to easily communicate their thoughts effectively using the models which they can easily understand. In this case, the psychologists are able to tell what different children with mental problems and disabilities are interesting in them.

Psychologists have defined art therapy as psychotherapy whereby the patients apply for the artwork in the different ways, which are varying as a way of improving the mental health status of disabled people and let them start thinking like the other normal human beings (Bazargan & Pakdaman, 2016). Through art therapy, the children are able to escape from the illness, stress, or even disability since they enjoy what they see in the arts. Art therapy has also been used as a symbolic language whereby the children who have difficulties in talking or hearing may understand what is being communicated and help develop their thinking capacity (Ugurlu et al., 2016). The children are helped by the therapists to decipher the meaning of the image or artwork and then discuss the issues which inspired the artwork. At this point, the children start developing some sense of understanding several dimensions in the real world and start feeling like the other normal human beings. The psychologists have argued that no matter how art therapy is used, it is a creative outlet for the children who are struggling with the different circumstances in their lives.

Children are said to be creative by nature. For this matter, it makes it simple for them to draw the pictures or the artworks than answering the direct questions. In addition to that, children with disabilities are also said to be reluctant to discuss certain topics, especially the ones in which they negatively affect their normal living. For instance, there are children who are traumatized over the death of their parents and hence may be reluctant to listen to the topics associated with death. This means that the creation of artworks is more of non-threatening than threatening the children. Art therapy allows children to tackle the tough issues in their lives in creative means. When the children facing the health issues are allowed to use their creativity to express their ideas, they will do it perfectly than when they are told to write them down (Ugurlu et al., 2016). This confirms that the natural creativity of children helps in healing the mental health issues and let them feel like they are concerned within the society. By allowing the children to draw or paint, therapists may interpret the art and understand the things which particularly affect the children and start the ways of improving them immediately. The science of art therapy has been used in different health settings and helped the children improve their mental health status to become responsible people in society.

Literature Review

Various studies have been carried out to explain the issue of art therapy to children and their effectiveness.  According to Ugurlu, Akca & Acarturk, (2016), art therapy helps the children in dealing with problems such as post-traumatic stress, depression, and other mental problems. From this journal, the authors define art therapy as a very important dimension that helps in dealing with the problems associated with mental health, especially for the children (Ugurlu et al., 2016). They also come up with the finding that most of the mental diseases can be easily treated to children than in adults. This brings in some light to the topic that the art therapist is one of the measures that psychologists should use to ensure that children in the society are not exposed to the serious problems which can be solved by the physical treatment.

Petruta-Maria (2015) talks about the role of art and music therapy techniques in the educational system of the children with special problems. First, the author defines art and music therapy as the application of the visuals to teach and understand the children living with serious disabilities. In the study, the author argues that therapists can easily identify the problems facing the children by observing their reactions when they see various artworks or when they carry out some drawings. The author goes ahead to explain the various special problems by the children who need physical therapy more than medical attention. Some of those problems may include mental disabilities, learning problems, depressions, stress, trauma, and physical disabilities. Those categories of people can easily be corrected from their situations, especially when they are identified when they are young.

Hoffmann et al. (2016) write about art therapy, claiming it has contributed a lot in making the people living with disabilities in the society realize their potentials and the roles within the society. Cases such as suicide have been increasing on a daily basis. This journal explains why a serious measure should be taken so that the children should be taught how to cope up with the situations related to those problems. The authors also go ahead to explain the role of expressive therapies in therapeutic interactions. Under the study, the authors explain why the majority of societies are doing all that they can to ensure that they take all the preventive measures that would make the children who are born with the physical challenges are taken care of (Ugurlu et al., 2016). The journal also explains art therapy under different perspectives which such as mental illness, physical disabilities, and how it helps the children in dealing with the trauma. From this journal, it is understood that art therapy incorporates the application of the visual images, and also the music where necessary to ensure that the children have developed the positive thinking and be able to cope up with the daily activities. The author also concludes that every mental situation is capable of being corrected as long as it is identified when one is young. This then brings the essence of art therapy that helps in identifying such problems to the children.

Research objectives

The main objectives of the research include

• To understand what art therapy to children entails
• To evaluate the different applications of art therapy to children.
• To analyze how art therapy to the children works.
• To know the effectiveness of art therapy to the society.

Research Methodologies

The paper used different research methods to gather information concerning art therapy to children and their effectiveness. Because of the unavoidable circumstances, the paper relied on secondary sources of information. The secondary sources included the journals, articles, books, and the websites which had the information related to art therapy to the children. Throughout the research, the paper was looking at the important dimensions such as what is art therapy, how is it applicable to the children with different problems; the procedures take to carry out the art therapy session, and the ways of determining whether it is effective or not among other dimensions (Ugurlu et al., 2016). This forced me to visit the library several times before coming up with the relevant findings, which would help in the field of research. During the research, the paper ensured that the important points from the different sources were noted and then later filtered them to come up with the relevant points about the study. The findings were categorized in the different subtopics, including the areas of application of art therapy, how the processes are done, and its effectiveness in the society. The findings were also noted down using the simple language that all sorts of people would understand regardless of their level of education, gender, and age. All the sources used were published from 2016 to 2019 as a way of ensuring the most recent information about the topic was extracted (Ugurlu et al., 2016). The research methods used seemed to be effective since all the ideas brought forward showed that the knowledge of art therapy is effective in controlling the various mental and physical problems to the children.

The application of Art therapy for children

Psychologists have applied art therapy for children in different backgrounds. As has been discussed in the introduction part, children tend to pass through difficult times in their lives before they become adults. There are also those who are born with mental health problems and disabilities. For this matter, the paper analyzes the different areas where art therapy is commonly used in societies.

First, the psychologists use art psychology in dealing with the children who lose a family member or friend. In most cases, children who lose their parents tend to developmental problems like stress and depression. If those children are not given immediate mental support can do the things which may harm their lives in one way or another. Those children may feel it difficult to communicate their problems to other people. At this point, the psychologists are forced to apply the knowledge of art therapy.  When they are in school, all the children may be ordered to draw anything that interests or not interests them. From that point, therapists may read from the drawings of the affected children and try to understand the problems they are facing. From that point, they carry on with the counseling sessions, which would help the children recover from the stress and depression associated with the death of their family member of the close friend. Under this point, it can be said that art therapy here is used in the schools where the different sorts of children intermingle.

Second, art therapy is applied to children passing through the childhood trauma associated with mental, physical, or sexual abuse. On this point, children may be facing a difficult personal life, which they cannot define. Sometimes when the girls are sexually abused, they find it difficult to share the information with other people. In most cases, they tend to look stressed and depressed. When you ask them to talk about it, they start crying, and they cannot say what particularly affects them. In this case, psychologists find it necessary to apply the knowledge of art therapy. As was pointed out earlier, the children are creative in nature, and they feel safe when expressing their feelings through drawing than when they are talking or writing about it (Akthar & Lovell, 2019). Therapists here may be forced to use the art therapy techniques and request the children to draw anything of their interest. From that point, they can be able to understand what affects their psychology and help in improving their mental health status and forget about the trauma they are subjected to.

Third, art therapy is essential in children with learning disabilities. While walking in many communities, you find that there are children who have difficulties in understanding the surroundings. Those children are either born with the mental deformities, or they were subjected to such conditions because of the diseases. In most cases, children can neither read nor communicate effectively (Bazargan & Pakdaman, 2016). Scientists have pointed out that those children can be improved if proper methods are applied. In this case, art therapy has been termed as one method that can make those children with learning disabilities improve their learning capabilities. Therapists here use the artworks whereby the children are taught using the drawings or the images. The children with learning disabilities may easily understand using the visuals that when they are taught by the teachers or reading in the books. Therapists learn what those children easily and start making the arts relate to that. They then keep advancing the artworks or the images depending on the level of understanding of the children with learning disabilities. Art therapy helps the children improve their learning capabilities slowly by slowly until they reach a point where they can read and write just like the other normal human beings.

Fourth, art therapy helps to improve cognitive capabilities. Cognitive capability generally means the general mental capacity that involves reasoning, solving the problems, and planning, among other things. Not all people in society have cognitive capabilities. Just like the learning disability, children are also affected by the problem of cognitive capabilities. Cognitive disability is mostly associated with mental diseases, but it can also be controlled using physical therapies. Art therapy is one of the physical therapies which have been considered to be effective in improving the cognitive capabilities. In this case, the children with cognitive problems are taught using the artworks such as the drawings and the images. Those children tend to understand when they see visual things than when they see the words. The psychologists come up with the simple artworks which the children having those problems can easily view and understand (Gussak & Rosal, 2016). Even though their level of understanding is low, with time, they tend to adapt and then relate the artworks with real-world situations. From that point, they start reasoning like the other people, and the mind starts developing the important things which help the children start solving the normal problems they face in their daily lives. For instance, there are those children who cannot even feed themselves, who cannot reason on what is good and what is bad for them, and also the others who feel that they do not fit in a particular community. Those are examples of the people who are cognitive incapable, and with the application of art therapy, they can improve from those situations.

Fourth, art therapy helps in treating mental disorders like schizophrenia or depression. Children may be depressed because of the different things they face in their lives. They may depress because of the lack of school fees, not having born from rich families like their friends, or even after they lose their parents. Those children may look like they have lost their minds, and in most cases, you can find them behaving like the mad people. The children can be easily corrected by the physical therapies which do not need medical attention. When those children are taken to a place and give them art therapy sessions, they can get back to their normal lives easily. The therapy may involve artworks such as the drawings and the other pictures (Bazargan & Pakdaman, 2016). Through this, the children will be doing the things which they find themselves comfortable with and, therefore, therapists can start reading them from that point. In addition to that, children may also express their things which they are bored with through the drawings, and then the psychologists may learn what they are disturbing them and carry out the counseling session. Schizophrenia and depression are not classified as diseases but mental disorders. Mental disorders can easily be rectified, and that is why psychologists prefer art therapy as one of the best ways of helping in correcting those disorders.

The other important dimension where art therapy is highly applied is in helping the children to understand and deal with physical disabilities. In most societies, disabled people tend to think that they are useless people. They do not like interacting with other people because they think that they do not belong to their class. This makes them sometimes look like they are isolated in society and fail to achieve their dreams, just like the other normal human beings. Disabilities may involve those who do not have their hands, legs, and other important body parts. In order to encourage them about life, serious therapy sessions should be carried out, and art therapy is one of them. Through this method, children falling under this category are encouraged using artworks such as the drawings and the images (Bazargan & Pakdaman, 2016). They take much of their time drawing their things, which would help carry away their bad thinking about themselves. Psychologists also use this method to understand the children who are depressed because of their physical disabilities and counsel them accordingly. It can, therefore, be said that art therapy is highly applicable in helping people with disabilities have hope in their lives and live a good life just like the other normal human beings.

The other application of art therapy includes helping in handling emotional issues like phobias and abandonment, dealing with the challenges associated with diseases such as cancer, and also helping the children in understanding and treating the behavioral problems. Additionally, art therapy also helps the children in relieving the stress, improve their self-awareness, and ensuring that they have the health skills within the society. All people lying under the category of children can benefit from art therapy irrespective of their gender, race, and culture. For the therapy to be successful, psychologists come up with effective programs which would make it simple for the children to understand all the concepts associated with the art therapy (Petruta-Maria, 2015). The psychologists have concluded that most of the areas where art therapy has been applied have shown positive signs. The children with mental health problems are improving and while others have started understanding their roles within the society. Children have also adapted the ways in which they can easily deal with stress when they face them. This has reduced the cases of suicide with a recommendable percentage, and that is why many countries have adopted this method of dealing with the children (Schouten et al., 2016). After understanding the application of art therapy in children, it is also necessary to know how it works so that the readers would know what they would do when they face the same problems in society.

How it works

The process of art therapy to children depends on the therapists carrying out the work. Other factors may include the age of the child and the extent of the problem that is being treated. Generally, the art therapists give the children the art materials which are appropriate to their ages. From that point, they tend to set them free in a way that all the children facing a particular problem may benefit from them. In many cases, the art therapist begins the process by giving the children a prompt. For instance, a therapist may ask the child to have a drawing of his or her favorite food or the house.  When a child completes drawing the picture, a therapist goes ahead to ask the questions about the various aspects he or she applied when drawing the picture (Petruta-Maria, 2015). This helps the therapist understand what the feelings or the thoughts each aspect of the artwork made by the child represents. From this point, therapists analyze the feedback of the child and try to figure out the problem that he or she might be experiencing. They then develop an effective treatment program that would help the child in becoming normal again. Through this process, the children are given the prompts, depending on the type of problem they are facing. Those who face mental disabilities may be shown the already drawn images and read their facial reactions. For instance, when the children are shown the image of a certain type of food, they may, their behavior towards the image may provide enough information to the therapists and help in correcting their problems. This case also applies to the children under the age of five years who don’t know how to draw. They are evaluated by the way they behave when they are shown the images.

After getting analyzing and evaluating the children subjected to art therapy, the treatment process begins. The treatment may be conducted by either the individual or in a group setting. Therapy is also categorized in either primary or secondary mode. The primary mode is the one that is conducted to the children for the first time (Bazargan & Pakdaman, 2016). After the children are subjected to the art therapy, they are taken in the primary stage of treatment where they are handled by the specialists. After they meet all the requirements needed from the primary stage, they are then taken to the second level where the final treatment is done. In both the two levels, therapists work either as a clinical team or individually, depending on the extent of the problem being solved. The treatment is also by different specialists. After understanding the nature of the problem that the children are facing, they are taken to the specialists who can handle them effectively (Haque & Haque, 2015). Most of the time, the children are treated in hospitals or health institutions with special treatment facilities. In addition to that, the art therapists commonly found in the health institutions and their work are to help to improve the health conditions of the children living with disabilities.

Its effectiveness

As it had been stated earlier, the children born with mental disabilities and the other associated disorders can be corrected if identified at the early stages. For those kids, art therapy is considered to be a very crucial thing. However, it is said that each and every child may respond differently to the treatment. Some children may need more than one therapy before you recognize the problems they are passing through (Moghaddam, 2016). Additionally, some children will open their minds by taking part in the artwork activities while others would stay reluctant until a therapist uses another technique. This also brings a sense of giving them a little more space and the time so that they can show up the problems they are passing through.

For the art therapy towards children to be effective, it is required for both parties to have trust. In this case, art therapists do all that they can to make sure that they win the trust of the children they are handling before they engage in the therapy sessions. It is also important for a therapist to be professional (Bazargan & Pakdaman, 2016). When therapists are professional, there is a high probability that they would be able to read the children depending on the type of artwork they have. The other factor that would result in the positive results is the consideration of the environment where the art therapy sessions are taking place. The environment should be good that the children would feel free to draw their ideas, and hence making it simple for therapists to analyze and evaluate the image using all the aspects (Petruta-Maria, 2015). Before you judge the children after learning from their artworks, it is good if you consult the other professionals about it. This ensures that the results given are a mixture of ideas and could easily help during the treatment processes. Because of the advancing technology, using the internet sources to check out what others say about the features you identified from the children would also help the art therapy being effective. With all those considerations put in place, the art therapists would not experience difficult times in noticing the problems which the young children are facing and then take the corrective measures as soon as possible. That is why most of the communities applying this method have a reduced number of people living with mental health diseases and disorders.

Who are qualified to become art therapists?

Like any other field, art therapy requires one to be professional enough so that he or she may carry out the activities effectively. This makes sense of the art therapists going to the college or university to get the necessary skills as long as art therapy is concerned. Apart from the academic qualification in this field, art therapists must know how to handle children born with disabilities and other mental disorders. The field experience also makes therapists good enough to handle all the related cases. With experience, it would take little time to identify and analyze the children before coming into the conclusion about a certain feature observed from the children. The age of a therapist is also another factor that determines whether therapists can handle the children falling under those categories or not. Obviously, the adults’ therapists are considered more qualified than young ones. The adult people are said to have a lot of experience in life, and they can distinguish a different kind of problems which the children go through (Habib & Ali, 2015). In short, the most qualified people to be considered as the art therapists depends on their level of the profession, the love of handling the children, gender, and the field experience on the issues related to art therapy. With those kinds of people in our society, art therapy can be considered effective and can help in correcting several disorders faced by the people in our modern society.

Conclusion and recommendations

Art therapy is a broad topic than people can think. It has been termed as one of the methods used in modern society to mitigate the problem of children born with different problems. Some of those problems include mental health diseases, mental disorders like stress, trauma, learning problems, and cognitive incapability, among others. Psychologists have argued that when the mental illness in children is identified at the early stages, it can be corrected easier than when it is noticed late. According to the paper, art therapy involves the application of the artworks in analyzing and evaluating the different problems the children are passing through to take the necessary measures. The art therapy plays different roles to the children as they have been discussed by the paper, including helping the children with mental disorders, those depressed, those who are cognitively incapable, and those who have difficulties in learning, among others. The process of identifying those problems has also been analyzed by the paper that involves giving the children the task of making a drawing or showing them an already drawn image and then read their reactions. By learning the problems those children face, the art therapists then go-ahead to begin the treatment processes, which would help the children get back to normal life just like the other human beings. Art therapy has been considered to be an effective method of correcting children with the problems mentioned earlier by the paper. The effectiveness is brought by the experience of the specialists carrying out the art therapy sessions, the environment where the sessions are taking place, trust between the children undergoing therapy and the art therapist, and the availability of the facilities, among other factors. In most cases, art therapy may be conducted in health centers or any other setting. It can also be conducted by either the individuals or a group of specialists depending on the nature and extent of the problem that the child is facing. All those different settings are done so that the art therapy processes become effective and can help in correcting as many people as possible within society. In order for all those processes to be purely effective in the future, all society should notice the art therapists in society and take care of them as special people. In addition to that, societies should stop despising children struggling with life problems. All people should take it as their responsibility to take care of them, and this would reduce the level of children living with normal disorders like stress and depression. In summary, the art therapy to children has been considered as an effective method of dealing with the children struggling with the day to day life issues.

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