ABSTRACT

Art as a Language for Autism addresses the clinical challenges that are common in working with autistic spectrum disorder by exploring how artistic expression can provide a communicative language for younger clients who are set in their thought processes and preferences.

Exploring how both art and play-based approaches can be effective tools for engaging therapeutic work, this book introduces strategies to help young clients find expressive "languages" that can fully support communication, expression, and empathic understanding, as well as build skills for relaxation, calming, and coping. Building from a foundation of a client’s individual strengths and interests, this playful and integrative approach is informed by an awareness of the individual sensory profiles and the developmental needs of children and adolescents with autism. Through a greater awareness of these materials and processes for therapy, the reader will be able to create a space for their young clients to share what they know and care about.

This exciting new book is essential reading for clinicians working with children and adolescents on the autism spectrum.

chapter Chapter 1|14 pages

Introduction

The Rainbow Day

chapter Chapter 2|13 pages

Listening to What We May Not Hear

chapter Chapter 3|8 pages

A Strong Image of the Child With Autism

chapter Chapter 4|9 pages

Finding a Language for Feeling

chapter Chapter 5|12 pages

Who Is Diagnosis For?

chapter Chapter 6|13 pages

A World Between Art and Play

chapter Chapter 7|23 pages

Playful Art and Artful Play

An Integrative Approach to Art and Play in Therapy

chapter Chapter 8|5 pages

Trusting the Process in Autism

chapter Chapter 9|10 pages

Clay, Play, and Connection

chapter Chapter 10|9 pages

From Perfectionism to Playfulness

chapter Chapter 11|8 pages

Empathy

Understanding the Other Through Art and Play

chapter Chapter 12|17 pages

Potential and Possibility for Adolescents

chapter Chapter 13|21 pages

The Spectrum and the Continuum

chapter Chapter 14|8 pages

Experience Becomes a Doorway: A Parent's Story

Based on Interviews With Jennifer Damian

chapter Chapter 15|8 pages

Conclusion