Art Therapy with Children on the Autistic Spectrum: Beyond Words

112 Pages·2001·0.96 MB·English

by  Janek Dubowski

Art Therapy with Children on the Autistic Spectrum
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Art Therapy with Children
on the Autistic Spectrum
Beyond Words
Kathy Evans and Janek Dubowski
Jessica Kingsley Publishers
London and Philadelphia
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproducedinanymaterialform
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FirstpublishedintheUnitedKingdomin2001by
JessicaKingsleyPublishers
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and
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Copyright©2001KathyEvansandJanekDubowski
LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData
Evans,Kathy,1948-
Art therapy with children within the autistic spectrum / Cathy Evans and Janek
Dubowski.
P.cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN1-85302-825-8(pbk.:Alk.Paper)
1. Autism in children--Treatment. 2. Art therapy for children. I. Dubowski,
Janek.IITitle.
RJ506.A9E9632000
618.92’8920651--dc21
99-056346
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
ACIPcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
ISBN-13:9781853028250
ISBN-10:1853028258
PrintedandBoundinGreatBritainby
AthenaeumPress,Gateshead,TyneandWear
Contents
Introduction 7
1 Developmental Deficit: Communication and
imagination 15
2 Imaginative Play, Creativity and Art 23
3 Drawing Development 31
4 Symbols, Signs, Theory of Mind, Autism
and Drawing Development 39
5 The Basis for Intervention: From theory
to practice 49
6 Diagnosis, Understanding and Assessment 63
7 Working with Stephen 81
8 Developing an Interactive Art Therapy
Template 97
REFERENCES 103
SUBJECTINDEX 107
AUTHORINDEX 109
Figures
Figure3.1 Patrick’sconsolidateddrawing 34
Figure4.1 David’stiger 44
Figure4.2 David’selephantandmonkey 45
Figure4.3 OneofDavid’slaterpaintings 46
Figure5.1 Charlotte’spainting1 52
Figure5.2 Charlotte’spainting2 52
Figure5.3 Charlotte’spainting3 53
Figure5.4 Charlotte’spainting4 53
Figure6.1 Charlotte’spainting5 67
Figure7.1 Stephen’sfirstscribbles 84
Figure7.2 Stephen’spainting1 88
Figure7.3 Stephen’stwiddledtissues 89
Figure7.4 Stephen’spainting2 90
Introduction
The application of art therapy for children with autism is not
somethingnew.Astheprofessionhasdevelopedsincethe1960sand
1970s, countless practitioners have contributed to the educational
and treatment programmes offered to autistic children in settings
such as special schools and social services departments as well as in
privatepractice.Differentmodelsofarttherapyhavebeendeveloped,
ranging from working developmentally by helping individuals to
move from one stage of drawing development to the next, to inter-
veningpsychotherapeuticallywithafocusonthealleviationof psy-
chologicalproblemsanddistress.Someofthesemodelsarediscussed
inthisbooktogetherwithanemphasisontheparticularapproachwe
have been developing since the mid-1990s.
As our insight into the conditions associated with autism grows,
our understanding of effective forms of support or intervention
becomesenhanced.Inthisbookweexploreourunderstandingofthe
art produced by children with autism and how art therapy may be
able to help them. From the perspective of contemporary child and
infantpsychologywithaparticularfocusonemotionaldevelopment
and relationship as informed by studies into intersubjectivity, we
attempttoprovideamodelofinterventionthataddressestheseverity
and complexity of disability associated with deficits in communica-
tion and imagination characteristic of autism.
Amongthevariousdevelopmentaldeficienciestobeobservedin
childrenwithautism,deficitsincommunicationandimaginationare
veryapparent.Althoughthemajorityofautisticchildrendodevelop
7
8 ARTTHERAPYWITHCHILDRENONTHEAUTISTICSPECTRUM
language, language use is often idiosyncratic and may involve
echolalia, repetition and delayed processing.
Therearemanyparallelstobefoundwhenobservingtheplayof
children with autism, for example the repetitive building of towers
out of Lego bricks or the lining up of crayons in a specific order of
colour.Theplayisnotwhatwewouldterm‘imaginative’:itdoesnot
involvepretendplaynordoesitsuggestthatthechildhasthecapacity
toimaginethatanobjectcanstandforsomethingelse.Whileforthe
normal child a banana can stand in for a telephone receiver, or a
broom handle may represent a hobby-horse, for the autistic child
they will always be bananas and broom handles.
Theseexamplesgiveanindicationoftheseverityandcomplexity
ofdisabilityassociatedwithdeficitsincommunicationandimagina-
tionthatarecharacteristicofautism.Amongthemanyformsofinter-
vention that have been and are being applied in helping these
childrentoworkthroughthesedisabilities,arttherapyappearstobe
promising.Whenwemakeapictureitisacommunicativeact,wean-
ticipateandhopethattheviewer,whetherthisisthechild’smotheror
the artist’s public, will understand something about what has been
depictedwhentheyviewtheimage.Thecreativeact,necessaryinthe
makingofart,isitselfanactofimagination.Itinvolvesthetranslation
ofaninternalimageinthemindintoatangibleformonthesheetof
paper. Later on we shall describe the developmental processes by
whichanormalchildgainsthecapacitytomakeimagesthatareboth
communicativeandimaginativeandweshallexplorewhatitiswithin
autism that interferes with these processes.
Inthesamewaythatmanychildrenwithautismdeveloplanguage
but use it in an idiosyncratic and inappropriate way, these children
oftenlearnhowtomakerepresentationalimages.Indeedwehavecel-
ebrated cases of individual children who have shown a remarkable
abilityandtalentintheirdrawing,themostnotableexamplesperhaps
being Nadia and Steven Wiltshire (Selfe 1977, 1983). However, in
INTRODUCTION 9
ourwork,timeandtimeagain,wecomeacrossthesameidiosyncra-
sies and inappropriateness in image making as are found in
languages.
Theseobservationsandquestionsformthestartingpointforour
inquiryintotheartofchildrenwithautisticspectrumdisorder.Asart
therapistsweimaginethatartcouldhelp,atafundamentallevel,the
development of both communication and imagination but in our
work we have developed a number of cautions that need to be
observed.Itismoretheactofmakinganimageandallthatisinvolved
inthisactthatitisimportanttounderstandthanthefinalimageitself.
Indeed,wehavefrequentlyfoundthatananalysisofthefinalimage
alone gives a misleading understanding or interpretation of what is
goingonforthechild.Inthesamewaythathigh-functioningautistic
children’svastvocabularymightleadustoassumethattheyhaveso-
phisticatedcommunicativeskills,thedraughtsmanshipexhibitedby
childrensuchasNadiaandStevenWiltshiremightleadustosuppose
thattheyhavedevelopedsophisticatedchannelsforgraphiccommu-
nication.
It is important to understand something about normal drawing
development in childhood before we can see how the condition of
autismaffectsthis.Inthisbookweshallmakesuchcomparisonsand
demonstrate some of the drawing processes developed by autistic
children.Thiswillbedoneinthecontextofarttherapy,inwhichthe
therapeuticrelationshipbetweenclientandtherapistisasimportant
as the art-making process itself.
Weshallshowhowthisisparalleledinnormaldevelopmentinthe
non-verbal communicative dialogue that takes place between the
child,otherpeopleandtheartworkthattheyareengagedin.Pictures
are a form of communication and the development of this does not
takeplaceinisolationbutwithinacomplexrelationshipthatinvolves
thesethreeelements:thechild,theimageandthespectator.Thistri-
partite relationship is reflected in the therapeutic environment: the