Children with Cancer and their Designs: Evaluation of psychological development of children in cancer treatment

Abstract

This research aims at understanding the role of child’s drawing in the assessment of the children´s psychological development under oncological treatment at the Maranhense Institute of Oncology Aldenora Bello. The paper, classified as field research, with a qualitative and descriptive approach, has been made, initially, through bibliographical inquire. Posteriori it was performed a transversal observational study among children interned at a Reference Hospital in the city of São Luís-MA (Brazil). The data collection was performed through direct observations of participatory type, also application of the projective technique of drawing HTP (House-Tree-Person) among the children as well as consulting the hospital’s records. As an inclusion criterion, it was adopted: children in a process of oncological treatment under 8 and 12 years age both of male and female sex, with a cancer diagnosis and hospitalized in the institution, loco of the research. As an exclusion criterion, it was adopted: children who weren’t in process of hospitalization, and those under weakened health situations without physical conditions to perform a projective technique. The goal of the research was to demonstrate the role of infantile drawing as an instrument to access the emotional reactions and to evaluate the psychological development of the hospitalized child with a cancer diagnosis.