Music and conversation as encouragement for creative expression in children with mild intellectual disability

Abstract

The aim of the research is determining the differences in creative abilities in children with mild intellectual disability (MID) before and after verbal and auditory prompting during the creation of an art drawing. The research was conducted on a sample of 60 students from three Belgrade schools for children with developmental disabilities, of both sexes, calendar age 8 through 16, school age I-VIII grade, with no neurological or multiple disorders. For the purpose of estimating creativity, we used drawing on the topic 'Peculiar flower', designed specifically for the needs of this research. Following a detailed explanation, children engaged in drawing an art work on the given topic with no previous prompting. After a while, the students were given visual and auditory incentive. In order to influence the desire for creative artistic expression, the children with stimulated through a piece of classical music, talk about flowers and a legend about a flower called 'Zvezdan (The starry one)'. Subsequently, the children were told to make a drawing as creative as they can. Comparison of the results before and after the prompting to express creativity pointed to the importance of verbal and auditory prompting for expressing creativity in children, as seen on all aspects of the flower drawing: color (t=-5,141, p=0,000), proportion (t=-3,246, p=0,002), shape (t=-6,622, p=0,000) and spatial distribution (t=-2,874, p=0,006). Based on the results obtained, we emphasize the importance of connecting the contents of art lessons with contents of Serbian language lessons and music culture, which would make for a good basis for prompting of creative expression in the visual domain. .

Cilj istraživanja je utvrđivanje razlika u kreativnim sposobnostima dece s lakom intelektualnom ometenošću (LIO) pre i nakon verbalnog i auditivnog podsticanja pri izradi likovnog crteža. Istraživanje je sprovedeno na uzorku od 60 učenika iz tri beogradske škole za decu ometenu u intelektualnom razvoju, oba pola, kalendarskog uzrasta od 8 do 16 godina, školskog uzrasta od I do VIII razreda, bez neuroloških i višestrukih smetnji. U svrhu procene kreativnosti primenjen je crtež na temu 'Neobičan cvet', koji je konstruisan posebno za potrebe ovog istraživanja. Nakon detaljnog objašnjenja deca su crtala likovni rad na zadatu temu bez prethodnog podsticanja. Posle izvesnog vremena učenici su auditivno i verbalno podsticani. Kako bi se uticalo na stvaranje želje za kreativnim likovnim predstavljanjem deca su stimulisana delom klasične muzike, razgovorom o cveću i legendom o cvetu Zvezdan. Nakon toga, deci je rečeno da nacrtaju što kreativniji crtež. Poređenjem rezultata pre i posle podsticanja, ukazano je na značaj verbalnog i auditivnog podsticanja za ispoljavanje kreativnosti dece na svim aspektima crteža cveta: boja (t=-5,141, p=0,000), proporcija (t=-3,246, p=0,002), oblik (t=-6,622, p=0,000), i prostorni raspored (t=-2,874, p=0,006). Na osnovu dobijenih rezultata istraživanja ističemo važnost povezivanja sadržaja likovne kulture sa sadržajima srpskog jezika i muzičke kulture, što bi predstavljalo dobru pretpostavku za podsticanje kreativnog izražavanja u vizuelnom domenu. .