ABSTRACT
The developmental approach to art therapy is based on various perspectives, including analytic ideas about psychosexual and psychosocial development, especially observations of the separation-individuation process. To identify the preferred modality, we present visual, auditory, tactile, kinesthetic, olfactory, and gustatory experiences, and then note responses to develop treatment strategies that will attract the client's attention and sustain interest. A client at the sensor motor phase is similar to a young infant; but due to a variety of factors, resolution of the developmental tasks of infancy may be limited. The capacity for attachment and for the differentiation of a sense of self, other, and object may be impaired. Physical maturation provides individuals with the ability and desire to perform increasingly complex tasks with more autonomy. A developmental approach to art therapy, based on understandings of cognitive, emotional, and artistic maturation, has been found especially useful with clients at a presymbolic level of expression.
