Visual Arts Therapeutic Intervention Strategies for Children with School Refusal Behaviour in Calabar South Local Government Area of Cross River State

In spite of the centrality of education to children’s whole development, there is a high population of elementary school age children who are out of school owing to school refusal behaviour (SRB). School refusal is a maladjusted behaviour like truancy, school phobia, and absenteeism, anxiety disorder among other child motivated school attendance difficulties. The study investigates the therapeutic tendencies in drawing for correcting school refusal behaviour. A pretest-posttest quasi experimental research design was adopted. Two art therapy approaches were used as intervention strategy for five weeks, with some qualitative elements. Simple percentage was used to determine participants’ school attendance in percentage. Findings revealed that engaging school refusing children in illustrative arts can increase their school attendance. Similarly, it was found that exposing children with school refusal behaviour to drawing and image making facilitates punctuality in the classroom. It was recommended, among others, that public primary schools should be engaged in periodic art training to be able to facilitate art-based learning at cross-curricular level in public primary schools.