Incorporating Group Art Therapy For Children With Autism Into The School System

Featuring 100 exciting hands-on easily reproducible art projects including visual examples, illustrations, and one-step directions; so that all lessons can be taught successfully with no previous art experience necessary. This one-of-a-kind comprehensive how-to-guide is an unparalleled resource for both teachers and parents who wish to promote independence through the effective intervention of art to those with ASD. An overview of its contents includes: Basic Facts About ASD provides the necessary information about the multiple types of autism and the typical disabilities associated with each, while drawing awareness to the prevalence of this disorder. Schematic Art Developmental Stages includes descriptions and illustrations so that students work can be easily evaluated assessing their current status. Foundational Instructional Elements contains insights into teaching art to those with ASD including building life skills, multidisciplinary connections, and current comparative art therapy practices. Review of Literature is an outline of the historical development of art education emphasizing its importance throughout history. Successful Art Model Programs reviews examples of effective curriculum showing arts positive impact on student achievement. The Elements and Principles of Design provides a multitude of visual examples and extensive definitions in a concise manner for easy understanding of these foundational concepts inherent to any quality art program. Building an Art Cabinet offers descriptions, techniques, and vocabulary in a detailed overview of the vast array of medium types and supplies, including suggestions as to what essentials to stock. Planning an Art Curriculum contains all of the necessary step-by-step components to begin writing an art curriculum, preparing the classroom, and implementing classroom rules and safety procedures. Individual Developmental Concerns features ways to obtain student-centered information enabling you to understand students strengths, weaknesses, learning styles, and sensitivities. Designing a Curriculum addresses requirements that should be taught, implemented, and incorporated within curriculum design, including core subjects, in order to improve student disabilities. Effective Teaching Strategies gives practical suggestions for helping students excel throughout the art process and within the curriculum. Behavior Management Techniques lists formal support plan suggestions and modifications, reward systems, and mediation impulse control ideas. Implementing a Curriculum helps you identify lesson selection and unit construction through samples, in order to implement long and short term goals, including an easy to fill out objectives form. Evaluation Procedures suggests multiple means of assessment in a variety of formats including a rubric scoring guide. Instructor and Parental Participation contains additional information for the Art Educator, Special Education Teacher, and Home Schooled Parent.

As arts therapists are increasingly working in schools, there is growing interest in identifying applicable therapeutic approaches and expanding on relevant research evidence. This book outlines the potential uses of music, art, drama and dance movement therapies in educational settings, and the contribution they have to make to the emotional and social development of children and adolescents. Drawing on international evidence, the book outlines a wide range of innovative applications of arts therapies across a range of settings, including mainstream classrooms, special schools and student support units. Examples of subjects covered include solution-focused brief dramatherapy groupwork in mainstream education, art therapy for children with specific learning difficulties who have experienced trauma and music therapy in special education. Particular emphasis is placed upon collaborative work, whether it be between arts therapists from different disciplines, arts therapists and teaching staff or arts therapists and researchers. Arts Therapies in Schools will be of great interest to arts therapists, and will also be useful to others who want to know about the potential of arts therapies in the classroom, including teachers and other education professionals, health professionals, educational psychologists, school counsellors and policy makers.

According to various research data, transition from primary to secondary school causes concern to many children (Jindal-Snape, 2010). This is more intense in the case of children with autism, because of their difficulty to face changes (Al-Ghani & Kenward, 2009). In the Transitional Social Art Group numerous topics can be explored systematically about this transition through an arts activity programme. Furthermore meetings involve presentation of sensory material, group discussion and group games relevant to each topic. Mainstream students can participate voluntarily in this group; in this case they could be prepared to provide practical and social support to peers with autism/communication difficulties during this transition under adult supervision. In this way this programme could also contribute to the prevention or elimination of bullying. In the present book there is an analytical presentation of the Transitional Social Art Group Programme addressed to practitioners or parents of children with autism. Additionally it could be implemented for children having communication or adjustment difficulties due to other reasons. The Transitional Social Art Group Programme can be used during other transitions, too.

This book bridges art therapy practice and research by presenting sensory-based relational art therapy approach (S-BRATA), a clinically tested framework for working with children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) that explicitly addresses sensory dysfunction and its impact on impaired attachment. The author shows how art therapy can facilitate attachment while addressing sensory problems that might underlie impaired attachment shifting the focus from the behavioral to the emotional development of the child with autism. The book additionally challenges traditional aspects of art therapy practice, particularly the focus on the relational aspect of the intervention and not the art product. Not restrictive or prescriptive and with the potential to be adapted to other interventions, S-BRATA provides an explicit framework for doing art therapy with children on the spectrum that opens the scope of art therapy practice and encourages flexibility and adaptation. Clinicians, students, and parents alike will benefit from the text’s clear outline for relational development with individuals on the spectrum and its emphasis on the importance of the psycho-emotional health of a child with ASD.

This book looks at how therapies involving animals can be used to help individuals with autism to develop skills and improve quality of life. Pavlides relates the success stories of different animal-assisted interventions. She emphasizes the importance of tailoring interventions to the specific needs of the individual and monitoring progress.

Recent research has shown that art therapy can be particularly effective for children with autism and related communication disorders. The extensive range of symptoms experienced by autistic people makes them extremely individual in presentation, so any treatment used must be tailored to a range of varying needs. Art Therapy with Children on the Autistic Spectrum presents a new model of practice, which primarily focuses on communication difficulties. The authors describe how negative behaviours and subsequent tension may be alleviated when the autistic child is involved in interactive art making with the therapist. The book is divided into three parts: the first part explores art making processes and art work, with an emphasis on how art can be specifically communicative. A history of autism is presented within the therapeutic context. The second part challenges existing methods of practice within art therapy and considers the most appropriate approaches to treating autistic children. The last part discusses research that lead to the formulation of this specific model - methodology and assessment interventions are analysed, as well as the ongoing development of appropriate assessment instruments. Case studies of art therapy with individual autistic children demonstrate the use of the model and the outcomes. Throughout the book, it is emphasised how art therapy works as an integral part of overall management and treatment approaches to autism. It will be of particular interest to all those professionals working with autistic children and specialists in other communication disorders.

Art Therapy with Special Education Students is a practical and innovative book that details the best suitable ways to work in the field of art therapy with special education students. This book provides the reader with practical approaches, techniques, models, and methodologies in art therapy that focus on special education students, such as those with ASD, ADHD, learning disabilities, behavioral disorders, and students with visual and hearing impairments. Each chapter addresses a specific population, including an overview of the literature in the field, along with descriptions of practices derived from interviews with experienced art therapists who specialize in each population. The chapters cover the therapeutic goals of each population, the specific challenges, intervention techniques, and the meaning of art. Dedicated working models that have emerged in the field and collaborative interventions involving parents and staff members, along with clinical illustrations, are also available throughout the book. Art therapists and mental health professionals in the school system will appreciate this comprehensive collection of contemporary work in the field of art therapy with special education students.