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Application of artetherapy with mentally handicapped persons
DVOŘÁKOVÁ, Veronika
Artetherapy with mentally handicapped persons is very extensive and diverse, just like various forms of mental retardation. The first objective of the present thesis was to ascertain which artetherapeutic procedures and art techniques can be applied when working with mentally handicapped clients. The second objective was to ascertain whether artetherapy helps to develop the overall personality in a positive way, whether it propitiously affects concentration, skilfulness and memory, or whether it supports creativity and socialization of the mentally handicapped. The third objective was to ascertain how mentally handicapped persons would react if they were given the opportunity to work creatively. To research the problems described, the author chose the quantitative technique. Methods applied were: observation, non-standard interview, content analysis of the data from medical and psychological documents and analysis of personal documents. The target group was 7 persons living in the ``Barevný svět{\crqq} Daily Centre. Having made use of previous knowledge, I made three hypotheses. H1: ``Mentally handicapped persons need a sufficient amount of time to acquire the technique that would help them express themselves more easily.{\crqq} H2: ``Artetherapy helps to develop the overall personality in a positive way, it propitiously affects concentration, skilfulness and positive thinking and last but not least, it supports creativity and socialization of the mentally handicapped.{\crqq} H3: ``Mentally handicapped persons positively react to the opportunity to work creatively, they are sincerely interested in this work, and they show great excitement about the results that they have achieved.{\crqq} The research has proved that the clients need to be given a lot of time to acquire painting and drawing techniques in order to express themselves in a better way. However, we must say that there is no single particular technique or procedure that we would be able to apply with each and every mentally handicapped person. The research results have confirmed that artetherapy helps to develop the overall personality, it propitiously affects concentration, skilfulness and positive thinking and last but not least, it supports creativity and socialization of the mentally handicapped. React to the opportunity to work creatively, they are sincerely interested in their work, and they show great excitement about the results that they have achieved.
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