This study aims to provide children who feel anxiety about adjustment, when they are isolated from families with an environment to express their thoughts and feelings freely, based on symbolic characteristics of colors and color psychology in art which is an emotional education, in the gradually informationalized and sharpening society.
For achieving this purpose, this study carried out a curriculum that focused on gender only without distinction of age, for children who first drew pictures in an art institute.
Firstly, primary and secondary children and tertiary autistic children received respectively, three-time(3), two-time(2) and three-time(3), emotional guidances of viewing, listening, thinking and speaking for two hours per week for three months.
Secondly, for measurement of images, children were asked to express images about psychological states that were associated after hearing the surrounding noise, clock ticking and unclear and loud sound with their eyes closed, by coloring them.
Thirdly, for collaboration, the third parties(parents, friends and guidance teachers) took part in the class and children could understand symbolic characteristics of colors assimilated with nature out of the art class.
The results of this study are as follows.
During the curriculum above, children were able to express warm and cold colors freely in the paintings that they drew in a pleasant and comfortable environment. Also, children who enjoyed using warm colors, showed free emotions and inclinations for warm and affective relationships, and children that mainly used cold colors, were self-assertive, weren't honest to people and felt interested in intellectual things. All of these inclinations were common to both of male and female children.
Secondary and tertiary children(with autism and Down's syndrome) used colors liberally, but children who were short of expression of free emotions, mainly used blue color symbolizing fear or black color symbolizing their anxieties.
During the image measurement, children used blue, black and gray colors a lot, when they listened to an unclear sound, and used yellow, yellow-green and pink colors, when listening to piano's clear and cheerful sound and the sound of water dripping.
These results demonstrate how external factors such as environment and education affect children. In other words, it was proven that children's growth and development are affected by environmental and cultural factors, that is, physical and psychological environments of families, schools and educational institutions rather than genetic factors.
But this study was targeted at children in an art institute only and children's emotions and mental states may change according to situation. In conclusion, this study provided implications that we need to recognize the importance of children art education and develop it in future.