There will be some amazing art work on display at Councill tomorrow night, including art created by students during the Artists as Educator’s program. I received a really touching email from Mr. Joel Smith about his students art experience, see below.

Laurie Ann Kramer

Art and Autism

My class has had the fortunate opportunity to participate in an a visual arts project brought to us by Laurie Kramer from the Cultural Alliance. Laurie Deliberately reached out to make sure our class participated because she was aware that children with behavioral or communication differences are often left out of such enrichment due to potential difficulties. The interesting thing is that Laurie and I agreed that this is the group that stands to gain the most from such projects.

My students have classical autism. Most of them have extremely limited communication abilities either verbal or expressive. They take in the world almost exclusively through their eyes and their hands. With this in mind, it only made sense that they would stand to learn more from a painting project than just about any other experience I could present to them.

The table was prepared with brushes, sponges, paints, the medium, and even a Tonka truck at one time. Then we gave the students something they rarely experience: complete freedom: freedom from pressure to perform, from teacher anxiety, from the need for control and freedom from limits. We put no extra rules in place for the new activity. We didn’t limit their access to the paint or materials. It was up to them to decide what they would do with the materials.

The result was astounding. The same behavior issues we deal with all day virtually disappeared. No hitting, screaming, meltdowns, jumping out of the seat or even distraction. My least academically attentive student was focused on his work. In fact, I think I got my first glimpse of what Jeffrey Freed, author of Right-Brained Children in a Left Brained World, calls “hyperfocus”. These children who seem to live almost every moment in a state of distraction went into a zone more intense than I had even seen even when they obsess over things, which autistic children have a tendency to do. This focus wasn’t on an obsession. It was a brand new experience to them. If you have known an autistic child you know that brand new experiences are often difficult because they don’t always adapt to change easily. However, this change seemed welcome to them.

I observed as each student had a truly individual experience, each manipulating the materials in a different way. Some literally dumping gobs of a paint then working the paints together into specific colors and distributing it carefully and deliberately across the medium. As they gained momentum and began to realize that they were not going to be limited, the work only got more detailed, as the paint was poured. Layer went over layer as textures and colors were manipulated. Their eyes never left their work in the full 45 minutes they worked (an incredible duration for their normally brief attention spans). However I did hear some verbalizations that I had never heard from some of them before. “Mr. Smith check this out,” and “O.K. Here we go,” were used in context with no coercion to speak. I couldn’t help but wonder how many more spontaneous and contextual verbalizations I would get if we did similar activities on a daily basis. And was it the complete freedom and lack of pressure that prompted this kind of focus and spontaneous language?

Other new and spontaneous behaviors I observed were collaboration in each others’ pieces and attention to fine motor movements. In reflection I realize that I was watching these students do what they do best: teach themselves by exploring their world. When faced with no limits to their exploration, they proved to have seemingly unlimited attention. Skills that a teacher might toil for months to teach with limited success were suddenly being used appropriately in the context of this activity. I realize now that I may have learned as much as they did by simply watching. I have learned about parts of these children’s personalities that I didn’t know existed. I can’t help but wonder what the results would be if we teachers would focus our attention on creating the context for children to learn by their own exploration rather than simply trying to direct information (mostly verbal) into their heads. Thank you for a true, whole class, learning experience Mrs. Kramer.

–
Joel B Smith
W.H. Councill Elementary