How can art be of value in helping children with mental health disorders?
Thursday, December 3rd, 2009Children in general benefit from developing their skills in art. Many children who are suffering with symptoms associated with various mental health difficulties can be helped by learning skills in art. Daniella Barroqueiro, Ed.D. is a college professor who herself has what she describes as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). She feels that the downside of ADHD can be reversed and become instead a positive. Art as a creative outlet, that is her passion, has helped her to channel symptoms associated with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in a positive direction, in the art room. Professor Barroqueiro states,
“When talking about ADHD, it is common to focus on the ‘downside’ of the disorder, the challenges, the frustration, how to ‘fix’ a problem or a set of problems. Notice I refer to a downside, which implies that there is also an upside to having AD/HD. Intelligence, creativity, spontaneity and the ability to hyper-focus (yes, hyper-focus) are among the characteristics commonly found in people with ADHD/ADD.”
Art can help children to gain more self control, it can give a person an emotional outlet. It helps most anyone to learn to maintain sustained concentration. It can effectively help to stabilize erratic moods. It also helps both adults and children to acquire time for their minds to find solitude and peace, and to heal. It can be a part of natural healing. The mind that is bombarded by constant stimulation of television, music, or media violence, has little time to heal.
When art is considered as an effective self help therapy, or that parents, educators and caregivers can encourage, for children who have mental health disorders or who are emotionally disturbed, it can be of much value. The use of art as a therapy, {in the long-term, when considered in terms of long-term efficacy}, can be of more value than the use of psychotropic drugs which usually have numberous and serious side-effects for most children and adults, and which are being overused today.
Art and arts therapy can also find a placing in the treatment of addictions, as it can be of much help to build feelings of self worth, which is often times a necessity in overcoming any type of addiction. Art also find a prominent place in helping those who are addicted to pornography to break from from the chain of pornography addiction. Addiction to pornography and masturbation can be two things that are contributing factors for depression and major depression for some persons. One university clinical study has confirmed this correlation.
Art definitly is a positive for children. There are benefits for children if parents help them to learn to develop interest in art. Some of those benefits are, it helps children avoid overindulgence in media violence in television and movies. Feelings of self worth, and self esteem can be enhanced by children, as they see what they have created from their creative artistic ablilities. Seeing is believing. “If I did that, then I must have some value.”
As a child begins to enjoy doing art on a regular basis, it is likely that he or she may find pleasure in producing art over his or her lifetime, especially if he or she understands why art can be be of help, and how television and especially, media violence and highly charged sexualized content, can negatively impact the mind and psychological profile, the emotions of a child or an adult. Developing interest in art can help a child to be more creative, to use his own imagination, and to become more of a rather than simply a passive viewer.
This article was produced by John Samuels of the Association for Natural Psychology. Please also visit our bookstore. Natural psychology, self help for treatment of mental health disorders, natural cures of mental health disorders, depression treatment without drugs, positive parenting, raising and teaching special needs children, and a variety of related subjects are considered. You can also see our new book,
Overcoming ADHD without Medication: A Parent’s and Educator’s Guidebook on Amazon, Alibris and other online locations. The Association for Natural Psychology is a New Jersey non-profit corporation.