Wilkinson 1
Dennis Wilkinson
SPED 413 Online
Dr. Jessica Zanton
Art Therapy and Autism Spectrum Disorder
Introduction:
Art Therapy is a unique tool in the special education toolbox. It exists in the visual world; a world that can be more comfortable for the learner with autism to relate to than the verbal one. Although it has not been as scientifically mapped and recorded as well as the other fields of autism therapy; it does present enough positive evidence and correlation to make it a worthwhile option for any special education teacher to consider. Case studies show that visual connection leads to improvement in social skills and other non-related areas. This makes art therapy a “cross-trainer” type of therapy that can show improvements across a variety of desired skills.
History of Art Therapy:
“Art Therapy is a hybrid discipline based primarily on the fields of art and psychology, drawing characteristics from each parent to evolve a new unique entity.” (Vick) Art therapy has a history as long as human history itself. Art is interwoven with our societalfabric and has long been considered a holistic, intellectual, and social part of our existence. The connection to mental disorders has been observed for the last 300 years. Art has been studied as therapy and on a more scientific level since the 1950’s.(Vick 6) Today, our understanding of the relationship between biochemistry and creativity is growing. How creativity and art benefits the learner with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is still partially unknown to this day.
Disadvantages of Art Therapy:
The disadvantages of art therapy are somewhat related to its history. Society has attached labels to art performed by learners with ASD and other exceptionalities. “Art Brut”, “Outsider Art”, and “Mad Artists” are all historical labels attached to artists with learning challenges. In addition, there has been some argument and discourse about whether art therapy is a “true” field of therapy. (Mirabella) This can be a disadvantage to the special education professional because billing and reimbursement may be affected by some companies that do not consider this field as an official type of treatment. (Martin) Art therapy exists in an “overlap” area where the methods and benefits often spread into other disciplines. The best way to describe this is a quote from Art Therapy and Autism by Martin:
“Art Therapy is viewed as a complimentary or adjunctive therapy in the field of autism treatments; its status is equivalent to professions such as music therapy, play therapy, and recreation therapy.”
Advantages of Art Therapy:
The main advantage of art therapy seems to be its innate ability to relate. This sounds very general but to the learner with ASD this is a major hurdle. Many learners report that they cannot “relate” a social situation or activity with a facial expression for instance. Art therapy is a tool that is a perfect fit for this type of visual relation problem. A case study of an 18 year old learner with ASD showed great advances in social situation recognition after attending a 7 month art therapy course. This study suggested that non-verbal strategies are consistent with the learner and ASD way of thinking.(Elkis-Abuhoff)
Another advantage of art therapy for learners with ASD is that “…art provides a product to focus on beyond the process of integrating uncomfortable sensory experiences.” (Martin) Nicole Martin, who wrote the Art Therapy Handbook, goes on to say that the rich sensory experience also encapsulates and organizes complex topics- making art therapy a natural fit for the learner with autism.
Why is Art Therapy Relevant?
Art therapy is especially relevant in today’s environment. It seems like art therapy could be on the cusp of a scientific breakthrough. Science and technology is at the right age of development to enable us to “see” into the brain processes. It is already documented that emotional responses like anger show up in brain imaging scans.(Pichon) Dopamine levels in the brain are critical to the learner with ASD and advances in technology can allow us to measure the level of chemical and activity levels during art therapy activities. (Mirabella) This is the current level of scientific study pertaining to art therapy and its benefits to learners with ASD.
There have been extensive observational and anecdotal studies pertaining to this field. There have also been a pervasive amount of case studies. These clearly suggest that “… different types of arts-based therapy can improve the quality of life and even cognitive function of patients with several different mental health or neurological problems.”(Mirabella 196) Even with this encouraging evidence there still exists the need to further the scientific research in this field. As a whole, art therapy lags similar fields in empirical evidence. (Mirabella) Martin states that music therapy’s empirical evidence surpasses art therapy’s. (Martin) The reasons for this are not that clear but the difficulty of classifying art and the overlap of other fields and techniques seem to be part of the problem. Even so, this should be no obstacle to using this exciting field for the dedicated special education teacher.
Impact on Special Education Teachers:
Impact is an important word to a special education teacher. I think that impact means something that makes a difference or creates advancement in learning. Learners with ASD sometimes seem to have walls that are hard to get over. Art therapy may be just the tool needed to get over such walls.
A compilation of 18 case studies performed from 1985 to 2012 showed that positive outcomes occurred in all of the art therapy treatments. All of the studies reported observational improvement in flexibility and relaxation, social and communication skills, self-image, and learning skills. 2/3 reported generalized behavioral improvements and the other 1/3 reported generalized improvement in relation to the art making. (Schweizer 15)
Thoughts:
It will be interesting to see if the future shows that art therapy is connected to undisputable scientific evidence affirming its positive benefit. There are some instances where art therapy is not a good idea. If certain imaging tasks or techniques dredge up bad past traumas it is obvious that art therapy is not a good match for that particular learner. Art therapy may not even be a good match for some particular types of ASD. It is suggested that brain “plasticity” and healing is highly dependent on the individual’s experiences and the type of therapy conducted. (Mirabella 197)
On the other hand, observational and anecdotal evidence overwhelmingly supports art therapy as a valuable tool in the teacher’s toolbox. One that is capable of making a decidedly positive impact on the learner’s health and progress. I think it would be foolish to not include art therapy as a possibility in any special education curriculum. Its visual learning abilities are essential to helping learners with ASD who already have a predisposition for verbal difficulties.
Summary:
Art therapy is a cross-platform discipline as old as civilization itself. Humans have been drawing on cave walls for 30,000 years. There must be something beneficial about it! It has only recently been scientifically studied in the “empirical” way and has a long ways to go in order to be accepted into the scientific community. Art therapy is sometimes lumped in with psychodynamic therapy and other holistic and eclectic fields when talking about empirical treatments for autism. (Vick 10) This is not fair to the field when every elementary school teacher in the country teaches art as a healthy subject. How can they compare art therapy to Jungian psychodynamic theory when the former is so established and the latter is a fringe discipline? Yet they are both considered in a similar vein when researchers report their theoretical models as a basis for research. (Vick)
The best way to see how art therapy can make a positive impact to a learner is to read case studies. These wonderful examples of real life improvement read like a feel good movie. Since much of the data on art therapy is observational and anecdotal, teachers sometimes use simply “what works.” Even the title of a research article is titled: Art Therapy: What Works.(Schweizer)
One upside to using art as therapy is that I haven’t seen any instances that it ever harms or has negative effects. I have seen the suggestion that it could possibly bring up old traumas but have seen no instances of such. Personal experience has shown me that some learners like art and some don’t. Some seem to benefit from it and some do not. As much research has pointed out- at the very least it seems to improve social skills and integration behaviors in a positive way. Self-image has also shown to benefit from art therapy. Art can help relate seemingly disconnected concepts to the learner with ASD in a visual and more comfortable way, thus encouraging better and easier learning. Let’s break out the crayons and the glue!
Works Cited
Elkis-Abuhoff, Deborak. "Art Therapy applied to an adolescent with Asbergers Syndrome." The Arts in Pscychotherapy (JAN 2008): 262-270. Document.
Martin, Nicole. Art as an Early Intervention Tool for Children with Autism. Jessica Kingsley, 2009. Book.
—. "Art Therapy and Autism." Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association (2009): 187-190. Document.
Mirabella, Giovanni. "Is Art Therapy a Reliable Tool for Rehabilitating People Suffering from Mental Disease." The Journal of Alternative and Complimentary Medecine (2015): 196-199. Document.
Pichon, S. Anger Detection and the Brain. Ed. Dave and Great Munger. 27 Sep 2014. Website. 27 Sep 2015.
Schweizer, Celine. "Art Therapy with Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Review of Clinical case descriptions on 'what works'." Arts in Pschotherapy (OCT 2014): 2-16. Document.
Vick, Randy. "A Brief History of Art Therapy." Malchiodi, Cathy. Handbook of Art Therapy. New York: Guilford Press, 2003. 5-8. Electronic Book.