Researcing and analysing the elements of the art applications of mild mental retarded individuals

Individuals who show differences from their peers in terms of educational sufficiency and individual features are the ones with special need. The term, special needed individuals involve the ones who have difficulty of learning as well as the ones who show high performance. Special training, on the other hand, is a sustainable training program given by trainers trained specifically for this field with appropriate materials designed for this purpose in the environments appropriate with the special needs of the learners. The first schools for mentally retarded people are Bicetre and Salpitre which were founded in France in 1831. In our country, it started with the opening of İstanbul Commerce School for hearing impaired people in 1889. ICD-10 (International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems); defines mental disability as cognitive and language impairments, insufficient development of mental abilities which occur during the developmental stage, APA (American Psychological Association), as perceptible limitations of general cognitive abilities coming with limitations of social adaptation problems (cognitive and social adaptation problems) which occur before the age of 22, WHO (World Health Organization) defines mental disability as delays in mental functioning, deficiencies in adaptive behaviors which can be observed during the developmental process. AAIDD (American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities) defines mental disability as the sign of extremely below avarage cognitive functioning occuring during developmental stages and deficiencies in adaptation behaviours, DSM-V which is the handbook of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-fifth edition published by American Psychological Association (APA), mental disability is defined as intellectual deficiency. Individuals with mentally special needs are divided into four in the book of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders DSM-IV by American Psychological Association; mild mental disability (IQ between 50-55 and 70), moderate mental disability (IQ between 35-40 and 50-55), severe mental disability (IQ between 20-25 and 35-40), extremly severe mental disability (IQ under 20-25). Individuals with speacial needs are classified into two different categories according to their severity. The first is psychological classification approach, and the second one is the educational classification approach. The first phase of the individual development of artistic production starts with drawing lines. Children's psychological, physical, mental and social development is also reflected in his/her drawing. Apart from supporting the development of the special needed individulas in social and mental development, artistic abilities are also effective in person's realization of her own abilities, developing a positive concept of ego and developing eye-hand coordination and motor skills. When the developmental characteristics of individuals with special needs are taken into account artistic development stages are divided into five categories according to person's situation at that age; scratching period (2-4 years), preschema period (4-7 years), schematic period (7-9 years), reality period (9-12 years), and logic period (12-14 years). In this study, art applications of mild mentally retarded individuals' determined visual art elements and feauters of their drawings were analyzed in order to understand their inner world of feelings. With this study, it is aimed to discover the inner world of these mild mentally retarded individuals and use this information obtained from their artistic actions to support their education process. Mild mentally retarded indiviuals' visual design elements in practice applications are represented in percentages according to color, IQ level, gender, class, branch and age. The determining personal differences of the individuals such as knowledge, experience, behavior, gender, ability and age and also regional differences of the people who have participated in the study have been taken into consideration and results have been analyzed accordingly. In this study, qualitative-quantitative research design methods have been used. Qualitative data has been analyzed using descriptive analysis and document analysis, quantitative data has been collected via questionnaires and results have been analyzed. Keywords: Mild Mental, Mental, Special Needed, Linear Phase, Design Elements, Color.