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Understanding The Verbalization Of Child Trauma Through Dance/Movement Therapy: A Literature Review, Nicole C. Camuso

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Born without verbal language, humans rely on movement to understand basic needs (Beltran, Brown-Elhillali, Held, Ryce, Ofonedu, Hoover, Ensor, & Belcher, 2016). In the 1950s, Dance/Movement Therapists started to connect the mind and body as one entity (Chaiklin & Wengrower, 2009). This integration supported the idea that by working together, the mind and body can help the individuals understand their sense of self as a whole, including the physiological, emotional, sociocultural, and cognitive parts (Chaiklin & Wengrower, 2009). This literature review explores literature about traumatized children and the use of Dance/Movement Therapy. By allowing access to DMT and combining both …

Therapeutic Use Of Mudras In Dance/Movement Therapy With Children In A Partial Hospital Program: The Development Of A Method, Harshita Bhargava

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Mudras are a codified set of gestures from different parts of the body in Indian Classical Dance and Yoga. Mudras in literary sources often refer to specific hand gestures. The thesis includes research on the use of mudras (hand gestures) from Indian classical dance and yoga in dance/movement therapy (DMT) to yield expressive and healing benefits. The research question explored “the extent to which mudras enhance self-expression and aid in building coping skills for stress, with children in a Partial Hospitalization Program.” An intervention was developed by considering the therapeutic implications of mudras and drawing parallels to elements of DMT, …

What We Bring To The Space: 
Considerations For Emerging Therapists On Nonverbally Communicating Safety, Isabella Mazza

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This thesis, in the form of a literature review, seeks to find how emerging therapists can nonverbally communicate safety within a group therapy session. In considering the target population, this thesis looks to focus specifically on children who have experienced trauma and may not have much experience recognizing the signals contextualizing safety. While therapists cannot guarantee ongoing safety, how are feelings of safety and trust in service of a therapeutic relationship developed? This research includes a review of literature in the areas of dance/movement therapy theories, trauma theories, polyvagal theories, and communication research. In this thesis, the term nonverbal communication …

Quieting The Buzz: Drama Therapy And Mindfulness In The Classroom, An Intervention, Karole A. Rose

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

From an incredibly young age, children in the United States of America are faced with significant stressors due to challenging life circumstances, parental pressures and ever increasing demands for success in all aspects of life including academics achievement, physical ability, and strong social skills (Allen & Klein, 1996; The Hawn Foundation, 2011). Yet, they often do not have the tools to manage the strong feelings and emotions that come along with these challenges and high expectations, leading to significant levels of stress and anxiety (Reilly, 2015). This thesis will explore the development of a drama therapy method in response to …

How Expressive Arts Therapy Is Being Used To Treat Children With Developmental Trauma And Its Implications For Treating Community And Systemic Causes Of Developmental Trauma., Cheri Haire

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Adverse Childhood Experiences, or ACEs, are circumstances that occur in a child’s life which are either long-lasting or have long-lasting effects due to their traumatic nature. Developmental trauma is a composite name for the effects of adverse childhood experiences on children. It has been found that, across racial groups, in locations with high poverty, children are more at-risk for scoring high (four or more) on the ACE questionnaire (Choi, Wang, & Jackson, 2019, p. 1). Treatment for developmental trauma begins with establishing a sense of safety in the child, but also within the family and the community. It is also …

Art Therapy’S Supportive Role In Self-Esteem For Youth And Correlating External Factors, Jennifer Schott

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

The development of self-esteem in children and adolescents has been greatly influenced by the environment in which they have been exposed and nurtured. The external factors that have been present in an individual’s experiences shape the format and understanding in their perception of self, especially self-esteem. Correlations have been recognized between external factors and levels of self-esteem. With these external factors growing and evolving, research and various therapeutic interactions can support the positive growth of self-esteem. Art therapy has played an altering role in children and adolescents’ perceptions of self through exploration in empowerment and creative therapeutic skills. Art mediums …

Testing Reliability Of Biophilic Design Matrix Within Urban Residential Playrooms, Ellen Marte

Theses and Dissertations

Biophilic interior design in urban playrooms has been greatly understudied. We measured inter-rater reliability of the Biophilic Interior Design Matrix (BID-M) and matrix items by quantitatively coding images of 45 New York City residential playrooms. Findings suggest that the BID-M needs to be modified to better assess urban playrooms.

New Childhood Chronic Illness: Pans/Pandas And The Impact On Family Functioning, Jamie L. Dolce

Master's Theses

The current study examined parents’ reports of change in the parent-child relationship and family functioning following the onset of Pediatric Acute-Onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome (PANS)/Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infections (PANDAS) in their child. Research questions explored 1) how families’ day-to-day lives and functioning changed since the onset and 2) what challenges the families faced in raising a child with PANS/PANDAS. Research was conducted in two phases: narrative thematic analyses of online parent forum threads followed by semi-structured interviews with parents. Four primary themes were compiled from analyses of both data sources: Determinants of Family Functioning; Close Relationships; Routines …

"We Missed Our Youth": The Identity Formation Of Child Migrants, Refugees, And Jewish Children In France From 1940 To 1942, Michaela Maria Gouge Watson

Honors Theses

From 1940 – 1942, hundreds of Jewish children from Germany, Austria, Russia, and France were hidden from Nazi and Vichy French authorities in children’s homes in France. These homes were administered by the Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants, a Jewish aid organization that assisted children in need during World War II. This study employs a quantitative content analysis of the testimonies of twenty Holocaust survivors who were hidden children in France between 1940 and 1942 to investigate to what extent the experience of outsider status and trauma affected these children’s personal and religious identity formation. The analysis finds that the …

Differential Effects Of Verbal And Written Disclosure On Perceptions Of A Child Who Stutters, Peyton Mcknight

Honors Theses

This study measured perceptions of a 12-year-old boy who stutters, relative to perceived speech skills and personal characteristics, as a function of seven potential stuttering disclosure conditions, featuring either a personal verbal disclosure, written disclosure, or no disclosure, delivered by various authors (i.e., self/child, mother, teacher). 641 participants college-aged adults were randomly assigned to one of seven stuttering disclosure groups: no disclosure control, verbal self-disclosure, written self-disclosure, verbal mother disclosure, written mother disclosure, verbal teacher disclosure, or written teacher disclosure. Participants in the control group viewed a brief video of a 12-year-old male who stutters reciting a short passage. Participants …

Resilience Fostering Music Therapy: Developing A Music Based Method For Children And Adolescents Experiencing Short-Term Psychiatric Hospitalization, Nataly Kruh

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

The implementation of music therapy within short-term psychiatric treatment programs for children and adolescents is in its beginning stages. In an attempt to develop a method which informed the profession and remained authentic to this writer’s approach as a clinician and emerging researcher, a two-part intervention protocol was developed within a resilience fostering framework, and through a culturally sensitive and trauma informed lens. Fostering resilience was defined in terms of increasing distress tolerance, increasing insight, and the use of coping skills. The implementation of the group on-site protocol intervention showed promising results specifically in promoting music as a coping skill …

Exploring The Music Making And Recording Process Working With Blind Children In An Elementary School Context, A Method, Graham Peck

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

There has been little to no research on ways in which professional recording spaces and techniques can be utilized for therapeutic benefit in a group music therapy setting. This paper outlines an arts-based recording method with a framework to promote resiliency, socialization within a group of peers, and effective self-expression for blind children who have experienced trauma within an elementary school context. There is also a discussion regarding the application of the recording process for beneficial group use more generally. The method framework was designed to be easily replicable for further research.

Creating A Space To Externalize: Mindfulness Based Art Therapy For Childhood Trauma, A Literature Review, Emily Jaworski

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Experiencing trauma in childhood can result in complex symptoms that impact the development as well as the mental, emotional, and physiological health of the child, resonating throughout their lifespan. Various forms of treatments are used to address the behavioral and emotional symptoms in children who experienced trauma such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Exposure Therapy, and Pharmacotherapy, however the vast majority of them do not incorporate a holistic framework when supporting children to process their traumatic experiences, therefore they do not attend to trauma as a catalyst for changes in the mind and body. This literature review aims to examine the …

Expressive Arts Workshop: The Relationship Between Educators & Trauma-Informed Care, Courtney Muttart

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

From an early age, children are put into the educational system and this environment becomes one of the most consistent surroundings throughout the beginning and later chapters of their lifespan. Within some classrooms, some children present an abundance of cognitive and emotional behaviors such as inattentiveness, impulse control, and limited coping skills that, in some cases, are representations of trauma responses. Research explores the topic of trauma-informed schools and other frameworks that bring the role of the educator to attention when addressing the needs of children who have experienced trauma. I found that facilitating an Expressive Arts & Trauma workshop …

Exploring Effects Of Improvisation In Expressive Arts Therapy With Children: Development Of A Method, Buneshte Hakhamaneshy

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

In the domain of therapeutic approaches, rich literature exists for trauma-informed expressive therapies and improvisational expressive therapies. However, there is very little research combining the two perspectives, especially in the case of children. Research in the field of improvisation states it can be beneficial in helping individuals broaden their capacity to learn, play and engage with others, but the field of trauma informed expressive therapies does not take from this body of knowledge. The aim of this qualitative study was to explore the effects of improvisational expressive arts therapy with children. The approach was qualitative, multimodal and trauma-informed, using various …

Implementing A Health Promotion Physical Activity Program For Middle School Youth In A Rural, Faith-Based Organization, Karmin Maher-Hasse

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Problem: Childhood obesity is more prevalent in rural areas, and these areas have fewer resources to address it. Geographic distance to available resources, health care provider shortages, parental obesity, and poverty contribute to higher prevalence of obesity in rural children compared to urban children.

Rationale: Obesity prevention and treatment often requires long-term healthy lifestyle behavior changes including nutrition counseling and physical activity (PA). It is likely an obese pre-adolescent will have obesity as an adult, and the likelihood increases if obesity continues into adolescence. Pre-adolescence provides a window of opportunity to influence healthier PA habits to prevent overweight (OW) and …

Elevated School Dropout Rates In Rural China, Mollie Bradley

Ballard Brief

Children in the rural provinces of northern and western China face challenges in obtaining educational opportunities that could aid them in overcoming their poverty-ridden upbringing. These challenges come due to inherent inequalities between the rural and urban regions of China. which stem from a historical diversion of resources from the western to eastern provinces. The factors that specifically affect students and their families as they strive to attend school and gain a quality education are the lack of properly trained and motivated teachers. the high cost of schooling borne by families. the economic inequality of rural and urban provinces, the …

Chronic Poverty Among Youth In The United States, Kara Reed

Ballard Brief

In the United States, 15.5 million children are living in poverty. The more time children spend in poverty, the more likely they are to continue to experience poverty as an adult. The cycle of intergenerational and chronic poverty is perpetuated by various factors. such as unsatisfied basic needs. lack of access to quality education, and issues related to underemployment and unemployment. As a result. youth in poverty are more likely to perform poorly in school, be exposed to and affected by crime. and experience health problems. Some leading practices for poverty focus on strengthening the quality of early childhood education. …

Linguistic Neglect Of Deaf Children In The United States, Mishonne Marks

Ballard Brief

Most deaf children in the United States are born to hearing parents who are not familiar with Deaf culture or American Sign Language (ASL). As a result. deaf children are in danger of experiencing linguistic neglect. meaning they do not receive sufficient language input. This linguistic neglect is typically unintentional and can be a result of deaf history, institutionalized oppression, current stigmas, and educational inequality. Linguistic neglect can result in deaf children experiencing decreased mental health, stunted cognitive development. poor academic performance. and employment difficulties. Several organizations are currently working to address and prevent linguistic neglect by spreading deaf awareness, …

Transformation Leadership And Youth Development Soccer Coaches: Behaviors That Enhance Coaching Performance, Diego Barros Dos Santos

Leadership Education Capstones

This quantitative study investigated the potential relationship between youth development soccer coaching style and transformational leadership behaviors. An anonymous survey was the source of data for this study. Participants responses were categorized into the four factors of transformational leadership which include (1) intellectual stimulation, (2) inspirational motivation, (3) idealized influence, and (4) individualized considerations. Recommendations for future research encompass expanding the demographics, sample size and field observations. Additionally, further research could include a contrast and comparison between coaches perspective x athletes perspective about transformational leadership behaviors. Furthermore, transformational leadership workshop and post survey intervention might expose how coaches leadership style …

Weight Bias And Mindset In Physical Educators, Abigail Caroline Heller

Psychology Theses - Archive

While physical education (PE) classes and sports teams create an opportunity to increase overweight and obese students’ interest in physical activity (Price, 1990), these are settings in which such students encounter stigma from PE teachers and coaches (Bauer et al., 2004). Weight bias predicts negative psychological (Eisenberg et al., 2003) and physical (Hunger & Yomiyama, 2014) outcomes in children and adolescents, which could be offset by positive behaviors related to growth mindset in teachers. The current study examined weight bias in elementary PE teachers as well as the influence of teacher sport-related mindset on weight bias. PE teachers (N = …

Connecting The Dots For People With Autism: A Data-Driven Approach To Designing And Evaluating A Global Filter, Viseth Sean

Computational and Data Sciences (PhD) Dissertations

"Social communication is the use of language in social contexts. It encompasses social interaction, social cognition, pragmatics, and language processing” [3]. One presumed prerequisite of social communication is visual attention–the focus of this work. “Visual attention is a process that directs a tiny fraction of the information arriving at primary visual cortex to high-level centers involved in visual working memory and pattern recognition” [7]. This process involves the integration of two streams: the global and local streams; the global stream rapidly processes the scene, and the local stream processes details. This integration is important to social communication in that attending …

Children And Advertising- An Advertising Literacy Program For School Children, Brey'onna Mong-Delane

Research Papers

This research paper is a case study that focuses on the creation of a three-dimensional advertising literacy program for school children to teach and protect them from becoming susceptible to advertising messages. The research shows how children are affected by advertising messages, it’s many consequences and how the U.S. and other countries are protecting children from advertising today. It evaluates the effectiveness of three-dimensional advertising literacy programs in comparisons to two-dimensional advertising literacy programs and uses its framework to create the modules for educating children. Though, two-dimensional advertising literacy programs are currently the dominant way to educate children, this case …

How Positive And Negative Affect Relate To Postoperative Pain In Children Undergoing Surgery, Stephanie Munduruca, Ryan Johnson

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Positive affect has been shown to be associated with lower levels of postoperative pain, while negative affect is associated with higher levels of pain. More recent research asks if subscales of positive affect such as calm, well-being, and vigor could be related to pain experiences. Studies of postoperative pain in children relating to positive and negative affect are limited, with none examining the connection between positive affect subscales and negative affect subscales (anger, anxiety, and depression) and children’s pain. This study addresses that gap by uncovering the relationships between the aforementioned subscales to postoperative pain in children. This study was …

Demographic Predictors Of Adult Behaviors In The Pediatric Postoperative Environment, Natasha H. Hikita, Amber Osorno, Carlie Taurosa, Michelle A. Fortier, Zeev N. Kain, Brooke N. Jenkins

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Over 85% of children experience postoperative pain. If poorly treated, pediatric postoperative pain may lead to various negative health outcomes. Adult behaviors may be associated with child experiences in the postoperative environment. For example, adult behaviors such as distraction, humor, and coping advice divert a child’s attention away from their pain and thus, may significantly reduce child postoperative distress. In contrast, adult behaviors such as empathy, reassurance, and apology direct a child’s attention towards their pain which may increase a child’s overall postoperative distress. Moreover, patient demographic factors, like child ethnicity, may significantly alter the frequency of use of these …

Deathucation: On Childhood Bereavement And Drama Therapy, Morgan Price

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This literature review is on childhood bereavement and drama therapy. The author examines current theories of childhood bereavement, including the chronic sorrow model, the duel process coping model, the tasks of grieving, and a three-part model that looks at significant mitigating factors relating to the death of a loved one. Efficacy of bereavement interventions is discussed. An in-depth look the current literature shows what children need from bereavement interventions. The history of drama therapy and childhood bereavement is also discussed. This paper concludes with a discussion on themes that are identified in the research as being helpful to bereavement including …

The Evolution Of Juvenile Justice From The Book Of Leviticus To Parens Patriae: The Next Step After In Re Gault, Donald E. Mcinnis, Shannon Cullen, Julia Schon

Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review

Since the arrival of the Pilgrims, American jurisprudence has known that its law-breaking children must be treated differently than adults. How children are treated by the law raises ethical and constitutional issues. This Article questions the current approach, which applies adult due process protections to children who are unable to fully understand their constitutional rights and the consequences of waiving those rights. The authors propose new Miranda warnings and a Bill of Rights for Children to protect children and their constitutional right to due process under the law.

A Needs Assessment For The Utilization Of Child Life Specialist Bereavement Support Services In An Emergency Veterinary Hospital Setting, Jared R. Negin-Fryers

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Studies indicate that there is an affective attachment bond, and related emotional involvement that exists between the companion animal and their human owners. Patient companion-animal death within the veterinary hospital, is a daily occurrence, with death rates per patient being significantly higher than in human health care. This comparatively higher death rate is due to the commonplace utilization of professionally sanctioned euthanasia to relieve animal pain and suffering. Companion animal death, may elicit grief reactions that are identical to what is experienced upon the death of a family member. A void currently exists in family centered veterinary care in terms …

Not Your Average Summer Camp: Children In Immigration Detention, Cindy Izquierdo

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

Abstract forthcoming.

America’S Second-Class Children: An Examination Of President Trump’S Immigration Policies On Migrant Children And Inquiry On Justice Through The Catholic Perspective, Gabriel Sáenz

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

Abstract forthcoming.