The Role of Joint Artistic Activities in Autistic Children Acquiring Visual Perception Skills: From the Perspective of the Artists Participating in " Rishat-Tayf"

      This study aims to identify the role of joint artistic activities in autistic children acquiring visual perception skills, from the perspective of the artists participating in the Rishat-Tayf for autistic children. The study sample consisted of 83 male and female artists. The study instrument, the questionnaire, was distributed to the study subjects; the descriptive survey method was used. The results showed that there was agreement (to a large extent) among the participating artists on the role of joint artistic activities in the participating autistic children acquiring visual perception skills because these activities provide autistic children with a wide space for creativity and help them to easily acquire visual color relationships. They also train the autistic children’s memory; contribute to the extraction of their inner creativity. Moreover, they showed that the study subjects agreed (to a moderate degree) with the visual perception skills that the participating autistic children could acquire. These skills include: visual memory skills, occupying the first place, followed by visual discrimination skills; spatial relations skills; color relations skills; optical closure skills, and finally shape and background stability skills. Furthermore, they revealed that some obstacles before the participating autistic children acquiring visual perception skills during the artistic activity (Rishat-Tayf), such as: differences in terms of characteristics, traits, and the level of autism; lack of sufficient time for prior acquaintance between the artists and the participating autistic children; lack of continuity of programs and joint artistic activity, lack of technical assistants accompanying autistic children during the event, and finally lack of materials and essentials required.