Autism Therapy: Art Therapy

What do you get when you mix paint, shaving cream, paste, streamers, flat bottomed ice cream cones, jello, smashed hard candy, 35 kids with varying degrees of Autism, 20 kids and teens to pair with them, and adults and behavioral techs to pair with the others?  Besides one of the longest run-on sentences you’ve read in a while?  You get:  Art for Autism!  Our autism therapy program that we started in 2006 in order to help children with autism.

According to the ArtTherapyandAutism.com website, art therapy can accomplish many things:

1.Imagination/abstract thinking deficits

2. Sensory Integration

3. Emotions/self-expression

4. Developmental Growth

5. Recreation/Leisure skills

6. Visual-spatial deficits

I thank ArtTherapyandAutism.com for their contribution to this article.

There are so many things that we don’t know about children with autism.  One thing that we do know is this:  all children LOVE art!  Whether its coloring their favorite cartoon character in a coloring book to painting a watercolor masterpiece, all kids love art.  When you have the opportunity to combine that love of art with art therapy and social skills (yes, we sneak that one in on them when they’re not watching), it becomes magic!  OK, maybe not magic, but wonderful!

So many of our schools are limited by resources and personnel.  There aren’t enough bodies to go around, nor hours in the school day.  So, instead of yelling that the schools not doing enough (which, ours are doing their level best with the limited resources they are provided), we provide our autism community art therapy.  Our children benefit in so many ways.  I receive emails from parents who tell me that their children’s imaginary play has improved at home.  They feel better about themselves because they BELONG somewhere!  Their physical therapists/occupational therapists/social skills therapists comment on improvements made at school. These kids may not understand the ramifications, but they do understand that they “fit in”.

The best part for me.  As a mom of a child with autism AND the executive director of the Dockery Foundation?  I look around the room.  I see all of these children engaged in art therapy.  And there are times when you can’t even tell who has autism and who doesn’t.  That’s the most remarkable part of the program, in my eyes.  The “typical” kids get as much out of the program as the kids with autism!  They keep coming back, week after week.  It is a volunteer program and they can’t get enough squishing and painting and messing and oozing.  Just like our kids with autism.

So tomorrow morning when most normal people are sleeping in on their Saturday mornings, we will wake up between 5 & 6 am.  Happily, for the most part.  Some parents will drive in from two states away.  We’ll converge on a wonderful Baptist church in our small town in Mississippi. We’ll mix paint, ice cream cones, frosting, shaving cream, and whatever else we can find.  We’ll combine those with physical therapy, occupational therapy, social skills (at least, our brand) and lots of unconditional acceptance and love. And we’ll call it Art for Autism.  Autism Therapy in its simplest form.  Taught by wonderful volunteer autism teachers, a behavioral psychologist and behavioral techs who give of their time, talents, and Saturday mornings to make a difference in the lives of children with autism.

Tags: autismtherapy, autism education, autism information, art therapy