Expressive Art Group Therapy to Improve Children with Autism's Social and Expressive Skills and Facilitate Parent-Child

Author

Yueyun TangFollow

Date of Award

Spring 5-20-2023

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

MA - Master of Arts

Department

Expressive Therapies

Advisor

Wendy Allen

Abstract

This paper discusses an approach to expressive arts therapy that involves joint participation by parents and children to utilize expressive arts therapy to enhance parents' comprehension of their children's communication styles and to help children with Autism Spectrum Disorder acquire practical communication skills. The study included children between the ages of 6 and 9 diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder and one of their parents. The author gathered information and concluded by process notes, conversations with co-leaders, and final participant interviews. Most children and parents reported experiencing a sense of support and ease within the group. This paper demonstrates that when children and parents engage in expressive arts therapy together, they can a) effectively facilitate parents' comprehension of their children's self-expression, b) assist parents in learning how to communicate with their children with ASD, c) improve children's communication and self-expression skills, and d) foster positive parent-child relationships. However, due to the short duration of the group therapy and the limited sample size, there are constraints on the reliability of the conclusions, and additional research in this area is necessary.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Tang, Yueyun, "Expressive Art Group Therapy to Improve Children with Autism's Social and Expressive Skills and Facilitate Parent-Child" (2023). Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses. 731.
https://digitalcommons.lesley.edu/expressive_theses/731