Perceived stigma in drawings by children with epilepsy

Abstract

Chil dren with ep i lepsy (CWE) may ex pe ri ence dif fi cul ties in so cial in te gra tion which is not easy to iden tify by ver bal com - mu ni ca tion. Aims: To iden tify the pe cu liar i ties of self-per cep tion of CWE. Methods: We an a lyzed the draw ings by 210 CWE and of 270 children with other neu ro log i cal dis or ders (con trol group), hos pi tal ized at Child Neu rol ogy unit, Kaunas Uni ver - sity Hos pi tal, 3–7 years and 8–17 years of age. Seven top ics were sug gested to all par tic i pants: My self (I am real, My self as a sym bol), Dis ease, Ep i lepsy, Time, Place, Emo tion, Ac tiv ity. Re sults: in 70% cases of 3–7 years old CWE warm col ors dom i nated, in 95% of chil dren of 8–17 years old cold col ors did. In most cases CWE iden ti fied ‘My self’ with the dis ease, ac cepted own dis ease, but could not ac cept him self/her self (clear de tails of the child, clear face of the dis ease, pro jec tion of the dis ease in one self). CWE pro jected emo tions to one self while chil dren with out ep i lepsy pro jected emo tions also to - wards en vi ron ment (CWE de picted an ger as placed in side, those with out ep i lepsy rep re sented sit u a tional draw ing; ‘Un - happy Snail’ lived in the closed off house ac cord ing to the most draw ings of CWE, to com pare with just 30% of the con - trol group). CWE were tim or ous to com pare with the con trol group (draw ings are more faint, from one line, scarce ex per i - ments with in tense col ors, sim ple struc tures), more [...].