Research on the Case of Art Therapy and Cognition of Autistic Children

Abstract

Due to congenital brain damage, autistic children suffer from difficulties in overall development, especially in interpersonal relation, language and behavior. Many scholars try to understand the inner world of autistic children through various treatments, but only painting, the most primitive language for children, is also the most direct way to express the autistic children’s mind. Therefore, there seems to be a certain degree of corresponding relation between artistic creation and message expression, but artistic creation is actually a complex mental activity, and it is difficult to understand the meaning of message in a simple model. This study explores the communication modes in addition to language based on the case of three children’s paintings in the “Gallery for Little Friends” initiated by Tencent Charity Foundation, whose main purpose is to develop an alternative way to communicate with autistic children, let us know, interpret and evaluate through their paintings, and then take appropriate actions to transform the messages in the paintings to concrete actions and measures, realize the goal of helping autistic children’s oral expression, and try to interpret the inner world of autistic children with painting as a medium.