ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Psychology for Clinical Settings
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1664699
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvancing Clinical Psychology: Current Research, Emerging Therapies, and Future PerspectivesView all 4 articles
Drawing Therapy Based on Embodied Cognition Theory on Emotional Expression and Social Behavior in Students with Autism: A Mixed-Methods Study
Provisionally accepted
- 1Faculty of Innovation and Design, City University of Macau, Taipa, Macao, SAR China
- 2School of Art and Design, Jimei University, Xiamen, China
- 3School of Fine Arts, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China
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Objective: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is often characterized by deficits in emotional expression and social functioning. Existing interventions tend to emphasize behavioral correction, often overlooking the role of bodily movement in cognitive reconstruction and neglecting the emotional-metaphorical function of cultural symbols that may limit therapeutic effectiveness. Methods: This mixed-method study randomly assigned 60 ASD students aged 6–19 into an intervention group (n = 30) and a control group (n = 30), which received a 9-week Embodied Cognition-Based Drawing Therapy (EC-DT), or a control group (n = 30) that continued routine training. Assessment tools included psychiatric diagnostic instruments, art-based drawing evaluations, and self-report scales (TSCS, GQOL-74). To complement the quantitative results, qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analysis of participants' drawings, enabling a case-based evaluation of the intervention's effectiveness. Results: Quantitative analyses revealed that the intervention group showed significantly greater improvements than the control group in self-concept (ΔTSCS = 29.37, p < 0.001), social functioning (ΔGAS = 15.6, p = 0.003), and quality of life (ΔGQOL-74 = 21.3, p < 0.001). Qualitative findings identified a "body– media–emotion" pathway, illustrating how participants regulated emotions through tactile engagement (e.g., "feeling emotions flow through the fingertips while drawing circles") and embedded cultural elements (e.g., using red to symbolize warmth) to enhance emotional resonance and social connectivity. Conclusion: The EC-DT model significantly improves emotional expression, social behavior, and self-concept among autistic students through multisensory integration and culturally embedded embodied experiences. These findings support the development of localized, culturally responsive intervention frameworks. Further longitudinal research is needed to confirm the durability of these therapeutic effects.
Keywords: Embodied Cognition, Autism spectrum disorder (ASD), drawing-basedintervention, mixed-methods design, self-concept reconstruction, cultural symbols
Received: 12 Jul 2025; Accepted: 23 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Li, Wei, Xing, Li and Song. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Wu Song, 11223@njnu.edu.cn
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