Klaipėdos universitetas

The practical use of drawing in the work of psychologists, both in foreign countries and in Lithuania, far outstrips the number of publications about it. The development and peculiarities of the drawing of typically developing (TD) children, i.e. children without developmental disorders, whose aim is to represent an object in a way that makes it recognisable, have long been of interest to researchers. However, there has been less research on expressive drawing, which aims to express emotion or mood. Even fewer have scientifically studied the drawings of children with disorders, and this study aimed to assess intergroup differences between expressive and representational drawings of typically and atypically developing younger school-age children. The study involved 53 children, including 24 typically developing children (TD), 12 children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and 17 children with hearing impairment (HI). Their average age was 8.5 years. The children drew two expressive drawings (happy and sad), and two representational drawings (a house and a person running). The evaluation of the drawings focused on: 1) the quality of the match between mood and task; 2) the representativeness of the house and the running man drawings, and 3) the correlation between the representativeness and the expressiveness of the drawings. The results showed that the expressiveness of happy drawings did not differ significantly between the groups, while the expressiveness of sad drawings was significantly higher in the TD group. The most representative were the drawings of children in the TD group. In all groups, as representativeness increased, so did the level of expressiveness. A statistically significant relationship between representativeness and expressiveness was found only in the ASD group.

Data suggests an increasing trend in the detection of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in our country and abroad. Families raising children with this multifaceted, lifelong disorder face significant challenges in communication breakdown and maintaining social relationships, which make it difficult for ASD individuals and their families to successfully function and thrive in society. This article presents mothers’ experiences and sources of stress. A qualitative research approach was adopted to show the subjects’ experiences. Data was collected using focus groups, with open-ended, non-restrictive responses to questions according to the researcher’s intended areas of assessment. The results show a number of generalised semantic spaces related to the child’s own appearance and behaviour, fear of the future and the internalisation of negative attitudes, as well as to the challenges of social services and infrastructure and mothers’ professional activities.