ABSTRACT
This paper is divided into two parts. First, it will examine how the practice of art therapy can offer a valuable resource in the special needs area of mainstream education. Where art therapy is established in schools, it can been seen to benefit those children who have particular emotional or behavioural difficulties and whose special needs cannot be met in the classroom. Various models of working with children in art therapy have been put forward in the relevant literature and in this book (Case 1987, Dalley 1987, Halliday 1987, Kramer 1979, Rubin 1978, and Wood 1984). The argument for using art therapy in schools will be based on my experience of working as an art therapist in an inner city primary school. By considering briefly the educational debate surrounding the idea of integration of children with special needs into mainstream education, the role of art therapy as a central means of working with the child’s emotional needs to help the achievement of learning potential is stressed.
