Art for children with special needs

Art

Using use art in the classroom to address developmental issues of students with special needs

All children need to gain a sense of positive reinforcement of their ability to succeed in academic and social tasks in the classroom. Deploying art to address the unique developmental issues facing students with special needs can provide an ideal arena for teachers wishing to use a hands-on method to teach important life skills to students with special needs. Learning in such a manner is meaningful for the child, because it is fun, experiential, stimulating, and provides a physical, tactile product for the child to bring home, that he or she can feel proud of, as an artist.

When adapting art projects to suit the needs of such children it is important to realistically assess the class' varying levels of comprehension and attention spans, which may be more diverse than a traditional class. When presenting new materials it is important to show the materials to the students, verbally describe the materials that will be used over the course of the project, and how to use the materials. A brief introduction is necessary before embarking upon the project to minimize the potential student frustration that might be aroused by having to deploy novel and unfamiliar items. For children with developmental issues of combined cognitive and physical nature, encouraging the children to manipulate items during the explanation, either by the teacher's own hands, or the use of an aide, can overcome barriers of resistance or a lack of comprehension.

Projects for such students should ideally provide tactile and multi-sensory experiences that enable students to connect the use of their brains with their bodies, such as hand painting or Play-Dough. Adding textured materials and scents to the painting and sculpting can further enhance the multi-sensory components of the project. For students with attention-deficit disorders or social boundary issues, using a brightly colored tray to define their unique workspace may help focus the child's attention to a specific area of his or her environment or provide security that his or her workspace will not be interfered with by others. If the school's budget allows, decorating the child's unique tray or art chest could be a possible first-day project. While group activities are certainly appropriate, establishing a sense of individual autonomy and boundaries is important too, and also a group art project might not be the best first project for the children, when they are still coping with a new environment.

During the project, a teacher should continue to stimulate yet focus the children's attention through auditory cues. This auditory stimulation should begin when modeling the different artistic processes before the class, as the teacher uses a combination of verbal, visual, and physical cues. But as well as saying "I'm painting while moving a brush in an up-and-down motion at the easel," during the introduction, the teacher can also, while patrolling the room, note that a particular student is doing a good job painting in an up and down motion, to provide positive reinforcement as well as reinforce the art skills of the lesson. This is a method of indirect instruction, an important component of art education, as noted in Mary E. Thompson's chapter on "Art for Students with Special Needs." Having a rebus charts with pictures illustrating the steps of the project also helps students follow directions, and for students with attention deficit issues, these students can refer to the chart to reorient themselves if they lose focus on the project.

Teachers should strive to minimize self-consciousness. For children in a wheelchair, the classroom should be physically accessible, not simply with wheelchair ramps, but also with a wide, clear path to the art center. Some art tools may need to be used in different ways, depending on the children's physical limitations. The teacher should have a wide range of adaptive art tools, like fat bingo markers, chunky crayons, large markers, double-handed ambidextrous scissors and glue sticks, which may prove less frustrating than a bottle of glue. Children should be encouraged to be physically exploratory, and so long as the children are willing to stretch their physical capacities to perform the process correctly initially, if some children prefer to use their mouth to hold a paintbrush, for example, to explore the uses of their body, this can actually be effective to develop muscles in the child's mouth, as can using blow painting with a straw.