Effectiveness of art Therapy Based on Painting Therapy to Reduce Anxiety of Children with Stuttering

Introductin: Art therapy is a creative way to growth and promotion of people's physical, mental and emotional health. Unfortunately, we had no study about effectiveness of art therapy to reduce people's mental problems with stuttering. The present study performed to examine the effectiveness of art therapy based on painting therapy to reduce anxiety of children with stuttering.

This research was semi-experimental study (pre-test, post-test with control group). The Statistical sample included 30 children with stuttering that were selected with nonprobability method from speech therapy centers of Tabriz city and they were randomly allocated to two equal groups including experimental and control. (N=120). Spence children’s anxiety scale (1997) was used in order to assessment of anxiety, experimental group during 12 sessions of 30 minutes (twice per week) began free painting under the supervision of therapist. Data were analyzed by SPSS 19 software and one way ANOVA statistical test were used.

The results indicated that there was a significant difference between mean score of post-test and following of experimental and control groups (P<001).

The results showed that art therapy based on painting therapy is an effective way to reduce anxiety of children with stuttering. Therapists can profit from painting therapy beside other treatment methods to reduce anxiety of these children.