Sarah Shively Is art therapy an effective form of therapy for children?

Yes, it is AD/HD and Autism Clinical and Trauma patients More effective than Verbal Therapy

What is it? Patients create art to express feelings and art therapists interpret the art Drawing. painting, sculpting, collaging, or any medium can be used. Show progress over time

AD/HD and Autism Pinpoint symptoms and work to solve them Builds skills of interaction Improve ability to communicate

Clinical and Trauma/Abuse Patients Make event seem more manageable. Makes it only a memory. Play it out with a happy ending.

For children, more effective than verbal therapy. More comfortable expressing themselves with crayons rather than words. Therapists can pick up on symbols in the child’s work that could show the true issue. Provides emotional relief Does not require specific skills, which is good for children.

Determining the focus group of the paper Clinical vs. nonclinical Young people vs. old people Lack of research on the topic Proof in the form of statements and stories rather than facts and figures

Chose to focus on art therapy for children More research More widely applied Made more sense Proved my point using success stories, methods, and reasoning

Passed the paper on the first time Learned how to write an in-depth research paper Learned a lot about art therapy and all of its applications My interviewee was very eager to help me

Test my research, held a finger painting class at East Clayton Elementary

What I learned about myself… I enjoy the “Art” part of “Art Therapy”, but not the “Therapy” part. When I give myself due dates and plan out all my steps, I am less likely to procrastinate. Finger painting is fun.

What I will take from this project to help me in the future… Good practice writing in-depth research papers for college Learning to improve public speaking Learning to research and idea, come to a conclusion, and convincing others of your point of views-helpful for jobs.

Was this project worthwhile overall? Yes Stretched me as a writer and public speaker Improved in areas I was weak in

Thank you, any questions?