ABSTRACT
In the spring of 2002 I undertook my first student placement as part of my training to become an art therapist. My placement was situated in a preschool in a Sydney suburb with a large proportion of low-income families and with a mix of people from different ethnicities and cultural backgrounds, including recent immigrants from Russia and parts of Asia. The preschool was a not-for-profit, communitybased service and was open to the public for attendance by children aged two to five. The preschool’s philosophy aimed to provide high-quality early childhood services and offered children with additional needs inclusion into the service. The children at the preschool were identified as coming from high-risk backgrounds. Many of the children experienced emotional deprivation and incidents of physical abuse and neglect. Perry and Szalavitz (2008) speak of the trauma that is associated with high-risk populations as having lasting impact and state that even minor stresses in infancy can have considerable impact on development.
