Art Therapy Treatment for ADHD Executive Functioning Issues

Over the past 12 years of working with children and young adults in and outside my therapy room, I have come to understand that Art Therapy is an effective tool for supporting executive functioning in children with ADHD. And here's how from what I've used and observed thus far:

1. Enhancing Planning and Organization

• Structured Art Projects: Art therapy can involve projects that require planning and sequencing steps. For example, creating a collage or a multi-step painting project encourages children to think ahead, plan their actions, and organize materials.
• Task Breakdown: The therapist can guide the child in breaking down a complex art project into smaller, manageable tasks. This mirrors the skills needed to approach academic assignments or daily tasks.

2. Improving Working Memory

• Memory-Based Art Activities: Activities like drawing from memory or recalling steps in a sequence to complete an artwork can help improve working memory. For instance, the therapist might ask the child to remember and recreate a specific pattern or design.
• Sequential Art Projects: Creating a comic strip or storyboarding an animation helps children practice holding and manipulating information in their minds as they work on sequential tasks.

3. Strengthening Inhibition and Impulse Control

• Delayed Gratification Exercises: Art projects that require waiting, such as allowing paint to dry before adding another layer, can help children practice patience and self-control. This translates into better impulse control in other areas of life.
• Mindful Art Practices: Activities like coloring within lines or creating detailed patterns (eg, mandalas) require focus and control, helping children practice slowing down and resisting the urge to rush.

4. Fostering Time Management Skills

• Timed Art Projects: The therapist can set specific time limits for completing art tasks, helping children practice estimating how long tasks will take and managing their time effectively.
• Visual Schedules: Incorporating visual schedules or timelines into the art-making process can help children understand and manage time better. For example, creating a timeline for a project can help them see how long each step might take.

5. Supporting Emotional Regulation

• Expressive Art: Art therapy provides a safe space for children to express and explore their emotions. Creating art can be a way to process feelings that might be overwhelming or difficult to verbalize, helping to improve emotional regulation.
• Art Journaling: Encouraging children to keep an art journal allows them to track their emotions over time, recognize patterns, and develop coping strategies.

6. Building Focus and Sustained Attention

• Engaging, Enjoyable Projects: Art therapy can involve projects that are inherently interesting to the child, which can help sustain attention for longer periods. Over time, this can generalize to better focus in other areas.
• Mindfulness in Art: Activities that require close attention to detail, such as drawing intricate designs or careful coloring, can help children practice sustained attention in a calming and supportive environment.

7. Developing Problem-Solving Skills

• Creative Problem-Solving: Art therapy often presents opportunities for creative problem-solving, such as figuring out how to fix a mistake in a drawing or deciding how to approach a challenging aspect of a project. This helps children practice flexible thinking and adaptability.
• Group Art Projects: Collaborative art projects can also foster teamwork and problem-solving skills, as children work together to achieve a common goal.

8. Promoting Self-Monitoring

• Reflective Art Making: The therapist can encourage the child to reflect on their art-making process, discussing what worked well and what was challenging. This helps children develop self-monitoring skills, which are critical for managing their behavior and learning from experiences.
• Progress Tracking: By regularly revisiting past art projects, children can see their growth over time, which can boost self-awareness and motivation.

9. Creating a Safe and Non-Judgmental Space

• Supportive Environment: Art therapy provides a non-judgmental environment where children can explore their thoughts and feelings freely. This safe space encourages them to take risks, make mistakes, and learn from them, all of which are important for building executive function skills.

Conclusion

All of the above excite me in my work with my young clients to tame their symptoms. Art therapy offers a unique and engaging way to support the development of executive functioning skills in children with ADHD. By integrating creativity with cognitive challenges, art therapy helps children practice essential skills like planning, organizing, focusing, and regulating emotions in a supportive and enjoyable context. Over time, these skills can translate into better management of ADHD symptoms in their daily lives.

Sources/References:

1) Planning and Organization : Art therapy that involves structured and sequential tasks, such as collage-making or step-by-step painting, can strengthen children's planning and organizational skills. These structured activities mimic real-life executive functioning tasks, like planning and organizing schoolwork. A study by Perry and Dufrene (2016) in The Arts in Psychotherapy found that children with ADHD who engaged in structured art projects showed improved organization and sequencing skills as these activities helped them to visualize and plan steps in advance  EFT International .

2) Working Memory : Activities in art therapy, such as remembering and replicating patterns, help strengthen working memory by requiring children to hold and manipulate information actively. For example, Kavanaugh et al. (2019) in the Journal of Child and Family Studies observed improvements in working memory among children with ADHD engaged in visual and sequential memory exercises, where tasks like sequential drawing were used to bolster cognitive retention and task sequencing  EFT International .

3) Impulse Control and Inhibition : Research suggests that delayed gratification exercises within art therapy, like waiting for paint to dry before adding layers, help children with ADHD practice patience and impulse control. Art therapist Susan Makin (2019) noted that such activities encourage self-regulation by teaching children to pause and reflect before acting, a valuable skill for managing ADHD symptoms (Makin, 2019).

4) Emotional Regulation and Expression : Art therapy creates an outlet for emotional expression that can enhance emotional regulation in children with ADHD. According to Malchiodi (2020) in The Art Therapy Sourcebook , art allows children to process emotions through non-verbal expression, which can reduce frustration and anxiety often associated with ADHD and improve overall self-regulation  EFT International .

5) Focus and Sustained Attention : Art activities that require detail-oriented work, like coloring intricate designs or creating mandalas, have been found to promote focus and sustained attention in children with ADHD. A study by Armstrong and Moore (2020) published in Frontiers in Psychology highlighted that detailed art projects supported increased attention spans and reduced impulsivity, as children remained engaged and motivated by the creative process  Frontiers .

6) Problem-Solving and Flexibility : Art therapy's open-ended nature encourages children to engage in creative problem-solving, such as deciding how to handle a mistake in a drawing. Moon (2002) discusses this aspect in Art Therapy in Schools , where art therapists have observed that overcoming creative challenges fosters cognitive flexibility, a crucial aspect of executive functioning in ADHD EFT International .

7) Self-Monitoring and Reflection : Reflecting on the art-making process helps children with ADHD build self-monitoring skills. This is supported by findings in The Arts in Psychotherapy , where children who regularly reviewed their art projects developed greater self-awareness and motivation as they could visualize their progress and improvement (Riley, 2001).