Creative Arts, Play and Mental Wellbeing
UndergraduateTAS-FXA3032025
Course information for 2025 intake View information for 2024 course intake
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- Study method
- 100% online
- Assessments
- 100% online
- Enrol by
- 16 Feb 2025
- Entry requirements
- No ATAR needed, No prior study
- Duration
- 14 weeks
- Price from
- $2,830
- Upfront cost
- $0
- Loan available
- HECS-HELP and FEE-HELP available
Creative Arts, Play and Mental Wellbeing
About this subject
Upon successful completion of this subject, the student should be able to:
- Analyse and reflect critically on forms of creative work and play and effects on mental wellbeing and self-management of emotions
- Synthesise interdisciplinary knowledge, research skills and cultural awareness, and principles of trauma-informed care to evaluate arts programmes intended to enhance mental wellbeing
- Analyse complex societal scenarios and identify problems, proposing creative arts-based solutions supporting mental wellbeing
- Communicate effectively to general and specialist audiences demonstrating creativity and interdisciplinary understandings of the effects of participatory creative arts and play on mental health and wellbeing.
- Module 1: Creative Arts and Mental Wellbeing
- Introduction and key concepts
- Child development and creative arts
- Adolescence, arts and mental wellbeing
- Neurodiversity, arts and play
- Module 2: Serious Fun
- Puppets and puppetry
- Emotional expression through puppetry
- Clowning
- Module 3: Building Bridges
- Design challenges for creative arts and play in trauma
- Cultural context, arts and mental wellbeing
- Enabling through creative arts
Participation in the creative arts has been shown to afford a wide range of benefits to mental health and wellbeing for young and old. This subject explores ways in which the creative arts and play can be used therapeutically to support and enhance mental wellbeing for children, adolescents and younger people. It explores particular challenges associated with life events, neurodiversity, or for those who are from minority or marginalised groups. A framework derived from principles of trauma-informed practice is used to inform critical evaluation of complex issues, and to consider appropriate and effective design of creative arts and play-based activities in a variety of scenarios. You will have opportunities to explore your own creativity and gain practical insight into different roles in the therapeutic arts, and to explore your own interests by conducting individual research that will deepen your understanding of the potential of creative arts and play for supporting aspects of the mental wellbeing of a specific cohort.
- Online Quiz 1 (10%)
- Online Quiz 2 (10%)
- Puppet as Research Response (30%)
- Peer Learning and Discussion (10%)
- Essay (40%)
For textbook details check your university's handbook, website or learning management system (LMS).
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Entry requirements
No entry requirements
Additional requirements
- Other requirements - Teaching Arrangement: 120-minute lecture, weekly - Cumulative online lectures/learning materials that are asynchronous. 60 minute tutorial, weekly - Synchronous online tutorials/web conferences. 180 minutes, weekly - Small group discussion board participation and self-paced learning activities.
Study load
- 0.125 EFTSL
- This is in the range of 10 to 12 hours of study each week.
Equivalent full time study load (EFTSL) is one way to calculate your study load. One (1.0) EFTSL is equivalent to a full-time study load for one year.
Find out more information on Commonwealth Loans to understand what this means to your eligibility for financial support.
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What to study next?
Once you’ve completed this subject it can be credited towards one of the following courses
Diploma of Creative Arts and Health
UndergraduateTAS-CAH-DIP
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