| There are 13 million autistic children in China at present,the number of which grows by 10%to 1 7%per year and has reached 1/1000 of the population,becoming one of the main diseases of mental disability.Autism is a generalized developmental disorder with pathogenesis unknown and ineffective medical treatment due to limitations.In recent years,attention has been to paid to the autistic children's painting therapy.whereas,the domestic research has just started with,the limitations of small quantity,narrow scope,lack of devices,random process and so on.Furthermore,there is a lack of deep discussion on whether painting therapy can improve the psychological function and its effect mechanism in an all-round way.Based on the above reasons,the primary purpose of this study is to construct a set of painting intervention model namely the "Graffiti-Mantra" Painting Intervention Mode(GMPIM)for autistic children,with the characteristics of aborinigality,systematicness,scientificity and maneuverability.Secondly,the "graffiti" and "mantra" texts are studied to summarize their characteristics,rules and serial ratingmethods.Lastly,the practicability of evaluation and the effectiveness of the intervention lodel are proved by empirical study.Part One:the construction ot the GMPIM for autistic children.It includes theoretical basis,approaches of settings,implementing materials,intervention methods?operational techniques,and ways of family and school assistance etc.Part Two:study on text characteristics and assessment format ot autistic children's "graffiti" and "mandala" paintings.It contain seven sub-studies:Study 1:painting level and developmental characteristics of autistic children.In this study,the paintings of 274 physical age malched children(131 autistic children and 143 typical developing children)were evaluated and compared by self-made painting classification criteria.The results showed that the "figurative" proportion ot-autistic children was much lower than that of typical developing children.The "figurative"proportion of typical developing children increases steadily with the increasing age,while the proportion of autistic children grows insignificantly with recurring and retrogressive phenomena.The paintings of autistic children aged irom two to twelve were mainly "graffiti",while none of those of the typical developing children aged from eight to twelve was defined as "graffiti".Study 2:study on the "assessment indexes" of autistic children's graffiti paintings.First,the formulation of the "assessment indexes for autistic children graffiti paintings,"with 23 items in total.The reliability and validity of the indicators tested are good(Interevaluator reliability r=0.914,p<0.001,homogeneity reliability Cronbach's ?=0.694,assessment item discrimination t=-7.811,p<.001,criterion-related validity r=0.543,P<.001).Secondly,the paintings of 139 graffiti stage children with matched painting abilities(304 paintings from 76 autistic children,252 paintings from 63 typical developing children)were compared and evaluated through the assessment indexes.The results showed that there were differences between the two groups in 15 indexes,such as "inappropriate use of paper" and "boundary concept".Study 3:reduplicative graphics in autistic children's graffiti paintings.In this study,the concept of "reduplicative graphics" was put forward in the practice of painting intervention.The reduplicative graphics from nine autistic children were examined and discussed to draw out the characteristics and development rule of the "reduplicative graphics"phenomenon.The results showed that there are a certain number of repetitive authors and repetitive works in autistic children who are in the stage of graffiti,and that their repetitive works have the characteristics of closed repetition and structural repetition.The repetitive paintings may be of a kind of learned behavior.Study 4:criteria for painting stages of autistic children's mandala paintings.This study divides the development of mandala painting into seven stages according to the relationship among space,logic and color according the self-made criteria combined with the expert groups' comments and modification.Studys:study on developmental characteristics of autistic children's mandala paintings.This study assesses and compares 279 physical age matched children(131 autistic children,143 typical developing children)and their mandala paintings by adopting "criteria for painting stages of autistic children's mandala paintings".The results shows that in the typical developing group,the low age children were more distributed in the lower mandala stage and the high age children,the higher mandala stage while the autistic children from both the low and high age groups were unevenly distributed in the different mandala stages.The mandala painting scores of-the autistic children were significantly correlated with Childhood Autism Rating Scale(CARS)and Autism Behavior Checklist(ABC)scores and irrelevant to their physical age.Study6:study on coloring characteristics of autistic children's mandala paintings.Taking autistic children,typical developing children and their paintings as objects,this study discusses the relationship between the coloring characteristics and their psychological functions in two types of children's mandala paintings.The results showed that both the dolor types and the frequency of color applying in autistic children's mandala paintings are less than those of typical developing children's paintings.With the development of painting stage,the types of color and the frequency of color applying of both the two children groups grew gradually.The number of color types in the autistic children's mandala paintings were positively correlated with the frequency of color applying.There was a significant positive correlation between the frequency of color applying,the color types,and the scores of the CARS,and ABC.Study 7:This study revealed the self-development phenomena and strategies in mandala paintings of autistic children.We put forward the concept of "self-development phenomenon" in mandala painting and studied 50 children with "self-development phenomenon"(29 autistic children and 21 typical developing children)and 167 pieces of their paintings(95 from autistic children and 72 from typical developing children)to discuss the psychological characteristics and "self-development strategies" of the two children groups.The results showed that there were a certain number of children with the "self-development phenomenon" in both groups.There was no significant difference in the number of "self-development" children and the numbers of paintings between two groups.There was no significant difference in the paintings with "self-development phenomenon" between "simple" and "complex" templates,either.As far as strategies are concerned,the main strategies for developing children are graffiti and configuration while the main strategy for autistic children is graffiti,with no adoption of associated policies.Part Three:An empirical study on the the GMPIM.The study was divided into two intervention stages:graffiti and mandala.The participants were 84 autistic children aged 4-12 years old(43 in the experimental group and 41 in the control group).The experimental group was undergone with 30 graffiti interventions and 53 mandala interventions.Before and after the interventions,the wholistic symptom and psychological function were measured with CARS and ATEC.The changes of their paintings were measured by adopting Criteria for Painting Stages of Autistic Children's Mandala Paintings established in this dissertation.The whole measurements included pre-intervention test(T0),graffiti intervention post-test(T1)and mandala intervention post-test(T2).The results showed that:(1)there were significant differences in the scores of CARS,ATEC and their factor scores between the experimental group and the control group after intervention(CARS:F=5.023,p=0.028;ATEC:F=4.767,p=0.032).(2)at different time nodes in the timeline(T0,T1,T2),there were significant differences in the scores of CARS,ATEC and their factor scores in the experimental group(CARS:F=12.894,p<0.001,ATEC:F=17.790,p<0.001)but no significant differences in the control group(CARS:F=0.754,p>0.05;ATEC:F=2.281,p>0.05).(3)there was no significant difference in the painting level between the two groups in the pre-intervention test(T0)(X2=0.144,p>0.05),but there was a significant difference in the post-intervention test(T2)(X2=5.576,p<0.05).(4)the comparison between the two groups in both pre-test(T0)and mandala post-test(T2)showed that there were significant differences in "inappropriate use of paper" and "area and proportion" in the experimental group,but there was no significant difference in the control group.(5)In the evaluation of mandala painting stage between the two groups.there was a statistically significant difference between the experimental group and the control group in the improvement of the level of mandala painting(Z=3.607,p<0.001).(6)In the experimental group,the color types and frequency of mandala painting were significantly improved compared with the control group(t=6.486,p<0.001;t=0.842,p<0.001).(7)There was no significant difference between the two groups of children with the "self-development phenomenon and strategies " At the end of the intervention,the effective mechanism of "graffiti-mandala" intervention is discussed in depth.It is revealed that the deepening of motivation,the development of consciousness,and the acquisition of experience are the three important elements of the effectiveness of intervention.Specifically,the "graffiti" intervention stage is mainly driven by motivation,while the "mandala" intervention stage is mainly driven by the development of consciousness There are performance promotion and experience acquisition in both stages.In summary,through a set of reliable and valid painting evaluation indexes are established for autistic children.In the same time,a "graffiti-mandala painting intervention model"(GMPIM)for autistic children has been set up and the auxiliary manual of school and family graffiti-mandala painting has been compiled in order to study the intervention effect of graffiti-mandala painting and its mechanism systematically and thoroughly.This research proves that the "graffiti-mandala" painting intervention model can promote the development of autistic children's painting ability,thereby enhancing their psychological function in an all-round way. |
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