Teaching Through Art
This is where I'll put examples of the ways I harness art to teach my clients different concepts, particularly those associated with social communication, executive function, or higher level language skills. You don't have to be an artist to do this - I'm certainly not! However, I've found even vague stick figures work just fine, and by starting with the example of my stick figures, my clients learn that their drawings don't have to be perfect, either.
I plan to add to it over time (I have a lot of examples!) so keep checking back for more!
Using Drawings to Teach Perspective Taking for Information Sharing
One way I teach perspective taking for information sharing is by drawing out the picture a sentence puts in my mind so the learner can actually see what's being understood. I can incorporate this into a lot of activities, such as reading or watching videos. When I drew the picture below, we had just watched a bit of Dolphin Tale 2 and my client was telling me what had happened in the movie.
Image description: White board with the sentences "She died. So she was sad. And she was in the water. She died in the water" at the top and a stick figure drawing of a woman underwater on the bottom.
For your reference, what had just happened in the movie was that an older dolphin, Panama, had just died in the pool, and the younger dolphin, Winter, was sad. From his perspective, my client's sentences perfectly described what he had seen - but they didn't take into account if that information would make sense to someone else. He was genuinely surprised to see the picture that put in my head!
Image description: White board with the sentences "The dolphin died. So the other dolphin was sad. And she was in the water. She died in the water" at the top and drawings of two vaguely dolphin shaped animals in the water below, with an X where the dead dolphin's eye would be and a sad face in a thought bubble over the live dolphin's head.
When my client added some words to the sentence, I was able to change my drawing to show how that changed my whole understanding of the sentence. It really helped him see in a much more concrete way how changes in phrasing can get a picture into someone else's head.
Note: It's important to approach this in a light and silly way. If you approach it in a straightforward way "This is the picture that your words put in my head" it can trigger shame and frustration for our more sensitive kids. However, if you approach it in a light way, take turns (so they get to show you the picture your words put their their heads, too), and give some distance (instead of saying "Your words put this picture in my head" you could say "Oops, my picture doesn't match! What can we change to fix my picture?") you'll meet with better success.
Here's another example! For this one we had been reading an "I Survived" graphic novel (the kids love them!) and I asked my client to describe what had happened on the last few pages. Instead of writing what she said down and then drawing it, I was drawing my mental image in real time. For this one she told me something along the lines of "He ran away from his uncle".
Image description: White board with two stick figures, one running away from the other.
After I drew the picture, I asked "What can we add to make my picture match the story better?" With that prompt, she was able to add a lot! Like before, I drew as she was talking so she could see the changes that her words were making to the mental image.
Image description: White board with one stick figure person who looks scared running away from a stick figure that looks angry. A scared stick figure woman is watching. They are all in front of a large house. In the distance a small, scared stick figure boy is standing in front of a small building. The sun is drawn in the sky.
With the picture to guide her (and an occasional "I think something is still missing from our picture!" cue), she added additional characters, feelings, and a setting to the story she told me. This makes such a bigger difference to real world narrative ability than having kids memorize something like "characters, setting, beginning, middle, end".
Using Art to Practice Giving Directions
This follows pretty naturally from the "using art to teach how to share information" work. In this, my client makes a drawing and then describes it to me. Then I try to make as close of a copy to the original drawing based only on what the other person tells them. Here's an example of what one child described to me. (It turned out to match his really well!)
Image description: Pencil drawing of an animal with a dinosaur head, bird legs, a crown on its head, and a big belly standing facing a castle.
Some of my kids prefer to look at my cards with random pictures and choose one of those to describe to me for me to draw based on their directions instead. If they want we can take turns, with me describing pictures and them drawing sometimes and then flipping back. It's a good exercise for helping them understand why things need to be described in a certain way for it to make sense, because if I'm too vague they can see for themselves how hard it is to understand.
Note that another great way to work on this is through making things where one person has picture instructions and has to describe what to do so that the other person (who can't see the instructions) can follow. You can do this with crafts, origami, even Legos!
Using Art to Teach Vocabulary and Concepts
With clients who are passionate about drawing, I'll incorporate it into almost everything we do, and it turns out that art is a great medium to teach new vocabulary and concepts!
For example, to work on learning new feelings vocabulary one of my clients and I went through and drew cartoon characters matching each emotion we were learning. I used the cartoon characters from this free download to find ones for each emotion, although you can use your own. If your client has a special interest, like the Avengers or Legos, you can go through and find pictures of them having various emotions to draw - or simply imagine what they might look like if they were having a certain emotion and draw it.
Image description: Drawing of SpongeBob with a giant smile and the word "Excited" over him.
To learn and communicate what tools are helpful for them personally to calm down, I'll give clients cut out pictures of self regulation tools that are often useful, and they can go through and decide which ones are helpful for them. (I use this freebie as a source for the pictures.) I add on any others they think of, too. Then we log the answers, usually employing some form of art.
Typically they make a collage with the pictures they chose, I make a collage for them and send them the picture of it, or my clients that particularly love to draw may choose to draw the tools they like. It's not absolutely necessary to use art while you're working on this - I had one client who was particularly proud that he was learning to type who typed his as a list - but I find art works well.
Image description: Collage with title that reads "What Makes Me Calm and Happy" on top and 20+ squares of white paper with ways to calm down typed on them and a clip art illustration underneath (examples: safe place, music, fidget, stretch, hug, etc). The paper also has a drawing of a trampoline, a chewy, and a rectangle that says friendship on it.