The painting is the work of Michael Tolson Robles, an autistic artist, writer and advocate.
In recent years, bringing art into the lives of autistic children has become a new rehabilitation-assisted activity, so what is the principle of the autism art healing teaching method?
For a long time, many psychotherapy institutions in Europe and the United States can see the use of artistic means to assist psychotherapy, which is called "art therapy" by Western psychologists, and has been applied to autism auxiliary treatment, or in recent years.
The founder of art therapy was the American psychiatrist Namberg, who, as a follower of Freud and Jung, founded the Walden School in 1915 to integrate art into psychotherapy. In the 1950s, Edith Kramer proposed that art therapy is an assistive form of psychotherapy. Under the impetus of her and some artists, art therapy gradually developed. In 1966, the United States established a special art therapy organization, the Art Therapy Association, and since then, the status of art therapy as a psychotherapy has been recognized.
At present, the teaching method of art healing is widely used in the field of education and psychotherapy abroad. Whether for the autistic, the depressed, the petty criminals or the general public, art is popular for its unique healing properties. They believe that artistic activities provide a vehicle for the development of the abilities of children with autism. If a child with autism lives a monotonous life, he has no chance to show his abilities. When parents and teachers take these children to participate in art activities such as painting, music, pottery, etc., let them do some handicrafts and contact different materials, their abilities have the opportunity to develop, and art activities provide an applied scene for their abilities to be displayed.
The ultimate orientation of the art healing teaching method, like rehabilitation training, is to help children with autism improve their ability to live and return to school and society. Children with autism are not without the ability and desire to integrate into the collective, but the number of integrated kindergartens in the mainland is limited, and there is a lack of special education teachers to support autistic children. Autism rehabilitation institutions organize some small parent-child play parties, children's carnivals, painting art creation and other art healing activities, which can provide them with opportunities for integration.
Four purposes of the study of painting art healing for children with autism
1. The use of painting technology in autistic children helps autistic children stabilize their emotions and express their emotions.
2. Improve the social skills and social adaptability of autistic children through group counseling, and establish social awareness and responsibility.
3. Promote the language development and cognitive ability improvement of autistic children through the painting creation process.
4. Through painting art therapy, the self-awareness ability of children with autism can be improved, and creativity and imagination can be stimulated.
A design scheme for the art of painting for children with autism
The first stage consists of: graffiti painting, color and shape, ink blowing painting and finger painting.
Children are required to doodle. Encourage them to experience the joy of painting, asking children with autism to actively examine the items or symbols in the painting and use them to connect the whole picture with their own thoughts and emotions.
Autistic children are required to draw straight lines first, draw shapes on the basis of mastering knowledge, draw shapes with various colors, and gradually cultivate the attention regulation, problem solving and self-expression of autistic children from easy to difficult.
Guide children with autism to apply watercolor paint on watercolor paper, directly with their mouth or straw to blow the paint arbitrarily, and observe the picture effect.
Guide autistic children to dip their fingers in different colors to smear on drawing paper, try the effect of applying with the palm of the hand and fingers respectively, or smear with the palm of the hand and then embellish it with the fingers to make the picture richer and cultivate the interest in painting.
The design purpose of the first stage is to promote the improvement of cognitive ability through the healing activities of painting art
Through painting art therapy, children with autism are guided to transform passive cognition into active cognition and obtain rich perceptual experience. Familiarize themselves with the textures and use of different materials, and encourage them to paint, clay sculpture and other activities to promote the development of perceptual ability; Expand the range of perception; Use these materials to make children with autism remember these perceived contents. Consciously let children with autism obtain information by the coordination of various perceptual organs, and then feedback into a grasp of shape, color, and size, and promote the development of cognition.
Phase II: Exploratory Phase
Includes: Painting Mothers, Painting Houses, Birthday Card Murals and Face Collages.
Children with autism are asked to draw their own mothers, guide children with autism to observe their mothers and say the characteristics of the mother. Cultivates observation and imagination and promotes emotional communication with the mother.
Guide autistic children to draw houses. The house symbolizes the individual, and the different rooms represent different personalities or emotions, mainly exploring emotions and the healthy state of emotions. Not only does the autistic child have an understanding of space and perspective, but also the autistic child is trained to have the awareness of connecting the surrounding environment.
Children with autism are asked to draw a birthday card for other members and give it away, gradually cultivating a sense of community and social responsibility.
Children with autism are asked to first draw an oval face on cardboard, and then cut out the facial features from the newspaper to collage onto the oval. Through cutting and pasting to consolidate the understanding of the other person's position, guide autistic children to put their facial features in the right position, and complete the sense of accomplishment on their own. Magazine collages provide structure and relatively non-threatening activities.
The second stage of design purpose: to promote the healthy development of emotions through painting art therapy
For children with autism, painting is the most direct way for them to express their emotional experiences and life experiences.
Children with autism can express their emotions, wishes, etc. with the help of symbols, lines, colors, substitutions, etc. For autistic children with emotional disorders and impulsiveness, we can vent by tearing paper, graffiti, etc., and gradually integrate emotions. With the help of paintings, we can better understand the inner world of autistic children, and through careful observation and analysis of the works, we can better communicate with them in language and promote the healthy development of emotions.
The third stage: the development stage
These include: cotton paper collages, group three-dimensional models, expression of emotion, snow sculptures, creation of group meals and clay sculptures.
Encourage them to tear or cut and paste at will on cotton paper, with no limit to the design style. By experiencing different materials, children with autism develop their observational ability and creativity, and stimulate interest in new things.
Children with autism are asked to create a stereoscopic model and to formulate a theme, using different materials to create a realistic scene. Through group collaboration, cultivate group members to coordinate their work. Cultivate creative thinking and problem-solving skills, strengthen communication and exchange with others through cooperation, and cultivate social awareness.
Guide children with autism to draw various emotions and let them express one of them through music. Encourage them to use musical instruments to express an emotion. Through the combination of painting and music, it brings more creative expression to children with autism.
Group members are encouraged to build snowmen and name them. Mobilizing enthusiasm and stimulating abstract thinking contributes to the expression of thoughts and emotions. Bringing fresh experiences to outdoor activities helps to develop social adaptability. The event was a temporary decision and worked very well.
Group members identify their favorite foods and draw them out. Through group discussion, it is conducive to the training of autistic children to explore and solve problems, and promote the improvement of language expression ability. Children with autism actively use their imagination and are closely related to life.
Guide autistic children to grasp the main appearance characteristics of the things of interest, understand the nature of the soil, cultivate the awareness of semi-three-dimensional modeling of autistic children, improve the use of tools and the understanding and generalization ability of objective things, and cultivate the spatial perception ability of autism.
The third stage of design purpose: to cultivate creativity and imagination through the art therapy of painting
By guiding autistic children to observe, such as guiding autistic children to observe the changes in color juxtaposition, aggregation and dispersion, light and shade and virtual reality, etc., let autistic children establish a correct observation method, and remember the image of the object in their minds through observation. Go through the memories before painting, and then draw the object. Thus promoting the development of memory. Guiding children with autism to paint other objects around them or apply different colors helps foster creativity and imagination.
Stage IV: Consolidation Phase
Includes designing wrapping paper and making gifts.
Observe the effect of watercolor after gradual penetration. Guide children with autism to combine colors, choose different colors at will, and observe after the colors penetrate each other. Draw when the paper dries thoroughly and then saves it in preparation for the next lesson. Knowing color through color exploration can clearly distinguish colors. Make your own to gain a sense of accomplishment, promote self-esteem formation and learn to preserve things.
Children with autism are encouraged to choose different materials to create. The finished works are appreciated by each other, and then each of them wraps their works in the colored paper they have made before and gives them to each other as gifts. Finally, we can enjoy the works pasted on the walls together and review the process of growing up together. In the end, children with autism will have anxiety and depression, and exchange gifts as emotional sustenance. Review the growth trajectory, let the autistic children see their own growth and progress, and have a sense of achievement and joy in their hearts.
The purpose of the fourth stage of design: to cultivate social awareness and improve social adaptability through painting art therapy
Let autistic children pay attention to others or groups, guide autistic children to carefully observe the appearance and behavior of others, etc., and expand the theme of painting from depicting themselves to depicting people or things around them, so that autistic children can gradually integrate into the group, feel the cooperation ability and cohesion of the group, gradually cultivate social awareness, and improve social adaptability.
Through group painting art therapy, it promotes interaction between children with autism, cultivates interpersonal skills, and contributes to the formation and development of healthy personality psychological qualities.
At the end of the art therapy phased activity, the participating Autistic Children's Behavior Check Scale (ABC) and the Children's Autism Assessment Scale (CARS) are measured, completed by parents or teachers, and the measurement data is obtained.
Small reminder: Before the autistic children undergo art healing, it is generally necessary to warm up the children to give autistic children the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the painting art healing activities and stimulate interest. It helps reduce children's sensitivity to the healing experience of painting art, and allows children with autism to relax and devote themselves to painting activities, expressing their thoughts and feelings as much as possible.
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