Rachel Jin
Artism Creativity Center, USA
Title: More doodling, less stress? Do art training programs for children with autism spectrum disorder help reduce the stress of their parents?
Biography
Biography: Rachel Jin
Abstract
This research focuses on three main learning objectives of providing art-training programs as Artism to children with Autism Spectrum Disorders(ASD). The three main learning objectives of this research on art training programs are 1) reduce parents’ stress, 2) explain how to organize an effective therapy program, and 3) build support for a community of parents. The study empirically analyzes data collected from the parents whose autistic kids take art lessons from Artism Creativity Center, a non-profit organization in Northern California and data from comparable parents whose autistic kids do not take art lessons.
This study provides evidence on whether and how art-training programs for autistic kids help reduce their parents’ stress. The study shows that children with ASD who attend Artism or a similar art and drawing program show higher levels of improvement than those who do not attend, which attests to the effectiveness that art therapy programs exert if these programs are created and organized well. The study further fi nds that one of the main factors that make Artism succeed is that unlike most art therapy courses, Artism does not just let the students “free draw,” but it develops specifi ed curriculum to each student to target their specific needs. In doing so, Artism teaches children with ASD how to use elements and principles of art and expression to communicate their moods and thoughts. This can be done for simple and straightforward reasons such as how color is used to express mood and other associations made between artwork and expression.