Dyadic Creative Arts Therapies-based Intervention for Children With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

Background: Interactions between parents and children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) tend to be directive and didactic lacking in playfulness and enjoyment. Recent research has shown that parents of children with IDD who engage in more playful, creative, and enjoyable interactions tend to foster more positive relationships with their children. Early interventions have been shown to enhance parent-child interactions and promote cognitive and socio-emotional development in children with IDD.

Objectives: This mixed-methods randomized controlled trial (RCT) study aims to develop a manualized dyadic Creative-Art-Therapies (CAT)-based intervention for children with IDD and their mothers and assess and explore its effects on the quality of the mother-child interaction and relationship.

Methods: This mixed-methods RCT will investigate and compare two conditions: experimental dyadic CAT-based intervention for children with IDD and their mothers and control psycho-educational counseling intended for mothers only. The sample will consist of sixty dyads of children with IDD between the ages of 3-7 and their mothers, who will be randomly assigned either to experimental or control condition. The experimental group (n=30) will receive 8 weekly individual dyadic CAT-based intervention meetings at their homes and involve both the child and the mother, and the control group (n=30) will receive 8 weekly individual psycho-educational counseling meetings online via Zoom and involve the mother only.