The purpose of this study was to provide an art activity program for a
child with intellectual disabilities from a single-parent family to express his
or her emotion and needs and feel a sense of achievement in an effort to
help improve his or her verbal and nonverbal self-expression.
The subject in this study was a child with intellectual disabilities in a
fourth-grade special class in A elementary school in the city of Pohang,
North Gyeongsang Province. He was at the Western age of 10. An art
activity program was implemented to verify its impact, and the child's
changes in speech, voice and nonverbal self-expression were observed and
recorded in every session to keep track of the process of his change.
This study made a case study of a child to observe the effect of the art
activity program on self-expression.
As a result of conducting the art activity program, the following findings
were given:
First, the art activity program that stressed artistic communication and
expression skills was effective at boosting the self-expression of the child
with intellectual disabilities from a single-parent family who was reluctant to
speak. Second, the art activity program had an effect on improving the
nonverbal self-expression of the child with intellectual disabilities from a
single-parent family such as eye contact, facial expressions, behavior or
attitude.