Children need special attention when dealing with traumas they might not fully understand. Thus art therapy has been proven to benefit the increasing number of children dealing with PTSD and other trauma related disorders creating fear and anxiety within the innocent child. Another major benefit of art therapy is that of the informal nature of the expression. Unlike language which is complicated through strict grammatical rules, artistic expression has the freedom to express complexities outside of language (Malchiodi 2006). In children, who do not yet have a full grasp and understanding of the complexities of language, art therapy allows certain emotions to come out which would have otherwise been unable to be expressed using a limited word bank and language ability, "Children do not have extensive vocabularies for describing their feelings and experiences, but they are generally comfortable with art as a natural way to communicate," (Malchiodi 2006:13). And so,...
[ View Full Essay]