This research aimed to examine the trends of art therapy for intellectual disability published in the
Korea's academic journals and suggest directions for future research and treatment. A literature analysis was
conducted on 64 articles based on the criteria of data trend, sample characteristic, research design, art
therapy method, and characteristics of the intervention. The results are as follows: First, studies with
various topics have been published in 26 journals since a case study was published in 1994. Second, the
number of studies on males in their teens was the highest while there was no study on adults older than
41 years of age. Further, many studies did not specify the grade of disability. Third, studies conducted with
observation and pre-post-scores comparison were most frequent. However, there was a trend of closely
examining treatment effects by using statistics or a single subject design. Among a total of 46 measure tools
that were used, K-HTP were used the most. Fourth, it has been reported that art therapy has positive
effects on strengthening family function, intervention of behavioral and sexual problems, and development
of social emotions, verbal skills, career choice, and visual perception. It was confirmed that each goal was
applied with different art activities, theoretical backgrounds, and sub-treatment goals. Fifth, the most
prevalent characteristics of the intervention comprised a 50-minute weekly session with 20 total sessions.