No abstract

This study investigated whether the content of children’s drawings of an event changes over three successive interviews about that event. It also assessed whether children recall more details verbally than they draw. Twenty-seven 3- to 6-year old children witnessed a live event which ended with one actor stealing a cuddly toy. They were interviewed about it 1 day, 2 weeks, and 6 months later. At each interview, children were asked to make a drawing of the event while narrating what happened. We analyzed the content of the drawings for seven features relevant to the event as well as inaccurate information. Children’s inclusion of “the perpetrator” and “the victim” decreased over time but the other features remained stable. Children verbally reported significantly more details than they drew. Our findings suggest that children provide less information in drawings than in verbal reports, but this information may be more reliable and stable compared to verbal reports over multiple interviews.

Child sexual abuse is a traumatic experience which may have a negative impact on a child’s attachment processes and sense of safety. A dramatherapy model that has been proposed for the treatment of child sexual abuse is the regenerative model. The regenerative model utilises role-play as a form of treatment and allows children to experiment with different roles in order to gain control of their experience and feel safe again. This article discusses a dramatherapy approach to the treatment of child sexual abuse on the basis of the regenerative model. It first introduces the model, and more specifically the concept of ‘the space between’ the therapist and the child. It then describes a case example and the use of role-play as a vehicle to explore emotions and thoughts and to process the traumatic experience symbolically. It concludes with the contention that dramatherapy, grounded on the regenerative model, may provide a safe space to work through the trauma relevant to child sexual abuse, in order to help a child heal and be able to form new, healthy attachment relationships.

This study investigated the interaction between internal characteristics and external prompts (drawing and dramatisation) in children's eyewitness recall. Eighty-one 3-to 6-year old children witnessed a live event involving an altercation between two actors in their schools. They were asked to tell what happened (Verbal condition), draw what happened while talking about it (Drawing condition), or show and tell by using gestures and mime (Dramatisation condition), one day, two weeks, and approximately six months after the event. Independent measures of temperament, mood, symbolic skills, and language ability were taken. Children in the Drawing condition reported significantly more details about objects than children in the Verbal condition after a two-week delay. Symbolic skills and shyness affected children's recall. Our findings suggest that considering young children's cognitive skills and temperamental traits may help facilitate their eyewitness recall.

Well-being is a multidimensional construct (e.g., Diener 2009; Dodge et al. 2012) which mainly describes the quality of one's life and involves one's ability to exhibit optimal psychological functioning (Deci and Ryan 2006). According to the Government Office for Science Foresight Report on Mental Capital and Well-being (2008), well-being is a dynamic concept which involves an individual's ability to fulfill their personal and social goals and achieve a sense of contributing to society (Statham and Chase 2010). This definition implies that well-being is subjective, suggesting that each individual can evaluate for her/himself the degree to which their experiences involve a sense of wellness or not (Deci and Ryan 2006). Research on the definition of well-being has traditionally been linked with two theoretical views. The eudaimonic view posits that well-being involves quality of life and satisfaction with one's life (Deci and Ryan 2006). According to the hedonistic view, well-being involves happiness, which is defined as the presence of positive affect and the absence of negative affect (Dodge et al. 2012). Looking at well-being from children's perspectives, one needs to consider two dimensions: a developmental dimension and a child's rights dimension (Pollard and Lee 2003). The first comprises aspects which involve poverty, neglect, and physical illness (Statham and Chase 2010). The second encompasses factors which involve maintaining children's quality of life in the present as well as the future and finding ways to support their aspirations and goals (Statham and Chase 2010). In this chapter, children's well-being will center around this second domain, and more specifically, safeguarding their psychological well-being during legal processes and creating the best possible environment for them to feel safe and secure in order to be able to provide accurate testimonies.