Children's art as a helpful index of anxiety and self-esteem with plastic surgery.
Children often cannot adequately express their feelings about physical issues that may be affecting them emotionally. Nonverbal communication with art has been a time-tested tool in understanding and interpreting the feelings of children under stress. For 27 years, the author has used art as a helpful index of anxiety and self-esteem in children undergoing plastic surgery for congenital, traumatic, and aesthetic problems. A child psychiatrist and an art therapist evaluated 200 drawings. The evaluations corroborated the need to "listen" to our patients no matter what their size.
Lukash
Frederick N
FN
Department of Surgery, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and Division of Plastic Surgery, Long Island Jewish Medical Center, New Hyde Park, NY, USA.
D000293:Adolescent; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D001154:Art; D001828:Body Image; D002648:Child; D003142:Communication; D006801:Humans; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D019651:Plastic Surgery Procedures / Q000523:psychology*; D012649:Self Concept