Vivek Chincholkar, Swetha Veeraraghavan, Prashant Mangla
BACKGROUND Autism is a developmental brain disorder characterized by impaired social communication and limited range of activities and interests. The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of Arts Based Therapeutic Interventions in improving the motor, cortical arousal, vocalization and self-expression skills among children with autism. METHODS This is a prospective cohort study conducted on a group of 9 children with autism chosen through random sampling. The tools used were Childhood Autism Rating Scale, Vineland Social Maturity Scale, observation schedules of parents, teacher and neutral observer along with Arts Based Therapy Tools of E-P-R (embodimentprojection-role) in clay and free scribble drawing. RESULTS There was a significant increase in the levels of vocalization and self-expression in children after 2 months of intervention. This shows that regular music and art allow for building the bridges in brain anatomy and help to increase target behaviours and promote a composite increase in the level of functioning of the child. CONCLUSIONS Arts based interventions help to provide children the template to comprehend and process complex instructions and motor functioning, thus allowing for a complete mind body functioning of children.
