Evaluating art therapy processes with children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Development and testing of two observation instruments for evaluating children’s and therapists’ behaviour

Abstract

Two instruments were developed and examined to enable treatment evaluation for art therapy (AT) with children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). One instrument is the OAT-A (Observation in Art Therapy with a child diagnosed ASD), the other the EAT-A (Evaluation of actions of the Art Therapist during treatment of a child diagnosed ASD). Both scales were refined in a three round procedure. In each round raters (art therapists and students) observed and coded four videos of different AT sessions. For each round interrater reliability was tested and when necessary items were revised. In each round the first video was used for training purposes only. Both instruments showed in the third round an acceptable level of intercoder agreement. Using the OAT-A and EAT-A in clinical research requires extensive training of raters who preferably work in pairs, thereby enabling comparison of their assessments. It is concluded that important steps have been taken to enable systematic evaluation of art therapy with children diagnosed ASD including the actions of the art therapist.