The primary colour choices of children with mental disabilities in visual arts

The primary color choices of mental-disabled students in visual arts course The aim of this research is to define the primary color choices of mentally disabled students in visual arts course in Bolu with respect to their gender and health conditions. The consistency of the color that the students have selected with the difact and genders has been demonstrated. The research has been repeated two times in 15 day intervals to show whether the color choices of students are coincidental.A pilot application has been implemented on the mentally disabled students and their color choices. Based on the general screening model, this research has utilized a study group representing the universe.The study group consists of one hundred and sixty trainable mentally disabled students attending to training application school and business education center in Bolu. This student group includes students who can understand the instructions, have the hand-eye coordination, and possess the mild-level work-technique class mental retardation, down syndrome, and epilepsy with an age range of 8 to 24. In order to define the research group, students who met the preconditions were determined through the communication with the Research Guidance Center in Bolu.With respect to the results obtained in the first application of the research in visual arts course, it was found that mentally disabled students preferred more the red and orange in hot colors in comparison to blue and green in cold colors in single color choices, whereas, green-blue and red-yellow combinations were selected more in combinatorial color preferences. According to the analysis on the effect of gender on choices, it was observed that both girls and boys chose the red color in single color preferences and the orange-green combination in multiple color selections. The research on the effect of diseases on color choices demonstrated that mentally disabled students selected the red in single color favorites and the green-orange colors in multiple choices, while the orange in single colors and the green-blue combination in multiple color choices were selected by students with down syndrome. The same research on students with epilepsy disease showed that blue was the favorite one in single colors and the green-yellow colors were the most preferred in multiple color choices.In the second application of the research, it was exhibited that the mentally disabled students again preferred more the orange and red hot colors in comparison to the green and blue cold colors in single color selections. In their multiple color selections, these students chose the green-orange and green-red colors in multiple choices which were different than their options in the first research group. On the effect of gender on color choices, it was shown that girls again preferred the red color in single color choices, whereas, their selection shifted to blue-green combination in multiple color selections. Boys chose the yellow color, different than their preference in the first analysis, in single color determinations and preferred the blue-green colors in multiple color favorites. In regards to the analysis of diseases on color choices, mentally disabled students again chose the red color and green-orange combination in single and multiple color selections, respectively. Students with down syndrome preferred yellow, different than their choice in the first research group, in single colors and again green-blue colors in multiple color choices. Students having epilepsy preferred green in single color choices and blue-yellow color combination in multiple color preferences which were both different than their favorites in the first research group.At the end of this research, it was concluded that mentally disabled students in visual arts course demonstrated similar color choices in both group of analysis with respect to their gender and disease states proving the effectiveness of the research.Key words: Mentally disabled individuals, Visual Arts Course, Color choices.