What is it about?
This case study illustrates how parents can help their children cope with the fear and pain of surgery by engaging them in expressive drawing. As part of a parenting class that utilized art therapy techniques, a father shared his 6-year-old son’s spontaneous drawings that had been created directly before and after surgery. Through guidance by the author and in dialogue with others in the class, the father reflected on his son’s experiences expressed in drawing and received support from other parents within an empathetic learning space.
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Why is it important?
Children who must deal with emotions like fear and pain which can be connected with surgery may find it extremely helpful when we offer them pencil and paper to express their feelings and when we listen to what they have so say.
Perspectives
It was very important for me that this paper now is part of the publisher´s Gold Open Access Program, so that all parents, grandparents and educators in early childhood or elementary education, or special and inclusive education, or professionals in hospitals or child care institutions have free access to this work, for the benefit of all children who find themselves in this kind of stressful situation and who might express themselves through drawing.
Professor Joachim Broecher
University of Flensburg
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Children Coping With Surgery Through Drawings: A Case Study From a Parenting Class, Art Therapy, January 2012, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/07421656.2012.648133.
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