Background & Aims: The aim of this current research was investigating the effectiveness of painting therapy in a scientific rather than traditional way on anxiety and learning disabilities in single-supervisor children.
Methods: The research method was a quasi-experimental design with pre- and post-test with control group. The statistical population of this research is consisted of male and female single-supervisors students in the second to fifth grades of elementary school. and the studied sample was including 30 students in the experimental and control groups which were matched based on gender and educational bases. The research instrument was the revised “Colorado Learning Disabilities Questionnaire (CLDQ) (Colorado Willcutt et al., 2011) and protocol of Painting Therapy (Case, 2020) includes 12 painting and language training sessions, which were held online due to the closure of schools in the Corona crisis.
Resullts: Analysis of pre- and post-test results showed that therapeutic painting reduces the disabilities of social anxiety, reading, problem and social recognition, perception of Spatial, and math, of students in experimental group.
In general explanation of the findings of this study, it can be said that painting is a child’s language.The students with social anxiety and learning disabilities were able to connect with their inner and outer worlds with the simplest possible means beyond the pleasure they created for themselves.they revealed themselves verbally figuratively. Many single parent families have many problems due to disability and lack of family support, and parental care for their children’s social activities outside of school is very limited.
In most single-parent families, prent-child relationships cannot be as well established as in normal families.
Single Parents students often suffer from high levels of anxiety; these students often have lower academic status, more communication problems, and poor social skills.
Excessive absenteeism from school leads to maladaptation and the formation of social anxiety and learning difficulties in them.Students with socil anxiety disorder also become anxious about simple tasks such as buttoning their clothes or ordering food in front of others. They think that if they ask a question, they may look stupid, afraid to eat in public, throw food on the floor, or if they enter a room, their feet will get stuck and they will fall to the ground and be clumsy.They become more anxious in the presence of peers with higher social status. Social anxiety makes learning difficult for these students and affects their abilities.Single Prents student with social anxiety and learning disabilities had many problems in their relationships, they were usually alone and had no friends, they dhd not even have any activities in online classes and did not participate in conversations, some of these students did not show any fear or anxiety in their appearance behaviors, but they had an avoidance mechanism that is a sign of social anxiety. Some students manifested widespread social anxiety and distress for no apparent reason, and finally another group immediately expressed the anxieties and fears they faced on a daily basis with great anxiety (Haberty, 2016). Painting Therapy with Single-Parents students has become one of the best Art Therapy methods for early intervention in emotional issues, and their adaptation. Students with social anxiety and learning disabilities did not have the means to express themselves, and painting spoke in their place through codes such as Sun, Tree, House, Man, etc…,Without any conditions. Based on their dvawings, the children ejected the killers of love and their painful problems were made possible.Whether children’s painting is called a code language, a cry of love, or a creative catcher, it as a projection of the children’s world, revealed their whole personality. Painting and making, with expressive expression, brout a fundamental change in the child, which led them to a higher understanding of themselves. Art activities and productions and considered not because of their aesthetic appeal but brcause of their analytical and therapeutic role. Psychological refinement enabled these students to actively seek solutions to life’s problems by creating creative and spontaneous activities. Psychological refinement causes obivious barriers to transformation and dissolution, and their morbid symptoms are alleviated (Case & Dally, 2020).Therapeutic Painting not onhy identified the cause of many of the students emotional,and psychological problems, but also was effective in preventing disorders students mental health through early interventions.Therapeutic Painting enhances uditory, visual, attentional, motor coordination, memory enhancement, and communication between the right and left hemispheres of the brain in solving behavioral problems by promoting creativity and enabling perceptual- motor development resulting from fine eye-hand coordination. Psychology and expression of unconsciousness were effective in the verbal expression and caused a positive transformation and improvement of morbid symptoms of students with social anxiety and learning disabilities and solving their problems.
Conclusion: The results of the follow-up test were confirmed after 8 weeks with the stability of the positive changes.