Fostering Social-Emotional Literacy through Art for the Institutionalized Adolescent Girls

There is ample evidence that institutionalization posits several challenges pertaining to the physical, social, emotional and cognitive development of children living in institutions. In spite of being acted on, many institutions continue to function ineffectively augmenting the devastating impact on children. The institutionalized children differ from the non-institutionalized children in that they claim to be less attentive to their own emotions as well as those of others; they do not consider it feasible to actually change an emotion; and they consider the effect of emotions to be more detrimental (Terwogt, Schene & Koops, 1990). Art based learning experiences have the potential to promote young people’s development of social-emotional competencies. A 5 hour programme (covered in two days) with four art activities was conducted in a registered Child Care Institute, Hyderabad on 20 girls who were between the age group of 8 to 12 years. The objective of the art based activities was to foster social-emotional literacy through reflection and discussion.  The four activities that were conducted include drawing with two hands, guided visual imagery, peer drawing and change that have been adopted from the book titled as ‘art therapy techniques and applications’ (Buchalter, 2009). Thematic data analysis (deductive approach) was used to analyze the drawings and the feedback received from the participants. Some of the themes that emerged from the drawings created by the girls are openness to learning, taking healthy risks, empathic bonding, stress reduction, mindfulness, emotional awareness, cognitive reappraisal, and acceptance.