Today in the World Arts Day and you know that we are very committed to how their strength and magic accompany and help our children with autism grow. You know that in the VICON Method Music is our best ally But today we want to make a special mention of others Creative Artistic Therapies which, although less known, are equally fantastic as a resource for growth in our children.
Music Therapy, Art Therapy, Dance Movement Therapy, Drama Therapy, and Psychodrama. These artistic-creative therapies implicitly involve a different way of conceiving health and illness.
These forms of treatment are based on a holistic conception of the human being, more positive and comprehensive, in line with the definition of the World Health Organization in which illness is not so much the absence of health but the difficulty or inability to access one's own potential within the specific context in which the person lives, associated with a deprivation of physical, mental and social well-being. The creative arts therapist knows how to empower people by humanizing coexistence between them, making them protagonists of their time and space, of their now and of the destiny of their own lives.
In many countries around the world, creative artistic therapies have already significantly developed as scientific and professional disciplines. In our case, art therapy applications for children It's a really exciting field, it seems like it's a field in which Disabilities and abilities are not organized the same way. and allow us to be with all that this entails. Children who lack the ability to articulate their emotions and internal processes in words with the same ease as an adult. This is why art therapy is an optimal resource for helping children express their emotions in a healthy and creative way.
All children can benefit from art therapy. It is especially beneficial for children with oral expression difficulties, such as children with developmental delays or autism, very shy children, or children who have not yet mastered language. It is also true that for children with language impairments, it can be a way to work on nonverbal language, creativity, and artistic expression. Art therapy is also used by child psychologists as a therapeutic complement for children who have gone through emotional trauma, abuse, catastrophes or family losses.
Working with artistic media reduces the stress, improves the cheer up and the general layout. It facilitates the communication and the child's expressive abilities as well as increasing the levels of serotonin in the brain, helping the welfare and reduction of the anxiety.
With these disciplines we work to promote the emotional and mental growth. Unlike art instruction, it develops life skills such as independence and collaboration. Art is an outlet for self-expression, imagination and creativityThe visual arts are very impactful and contribute to the cognitive development, visual and spatial orientation, fine motor skills and planning.
Art fits naturally with the autism, as it can help people with autism express themselves through images, while being an activity relaxing. The interactions face to face, such as conversations, can be stressful for people with autism, making it difficult to understand what the individual is feeling or thinking. Many people with autism struggle with communication, but most of them are visual thinkers.
Music Therapy: Any musical activity, singing, dancing, listening to music, playing an instrument… brings into play the entire cognitive cavalry and stimulates practically all cognitive functions.
Art Therapy: Finger, hand, or toe painting, collage making, modeling, sculpting... all contact with materials allows us to explore, perform excellent sensorial and sensitive work, and promotes interaction with others and strengthens bonds. Even picking up a camera, one of those we've forgotten in a drawer, can be an artistic resource that will impress our little ones.
Dance Movement Therapy: how I walk, how I breathe, how I sit, whether I work on the floor, standing, in a chair or on a bed, everything offers unparalleled possibilities for bodily expression. If we add to all this the power of music, it creates an exquisite combination that no child or adult can resist.
Psychodrama and Drama Therapy: These are disciplines that emerge from the same parent, but the therapeutic approach is different. Both foster spontaneity, creativity, and change. Their methods are not mutually exclusive. We rarely do theater, and what subtle and excellent benefits it awakens in us—with puppets, shadow puppets, hands and a flashlight, costumes with a curtain... it gives us the ideal setting to recreate a space of magic, surprise, fright, or laughter... that will not only spark our little ones' interest but will also place us in a different, creative, and imaginative situation that will connect with them, with our audience, in a spectacular way.
We know that nor we are in an easy moment to be able to attend a good therapy of these disciplines but who is going to leave us behind and why not try some activity that I have another breath, that I have another texture, another smell, another color... Do we encourage you to let your imagination fly because when it comes to art it is within us and our children so take advantage of it to stimulate the growth of your attachment, encourage interaction and family fun?
Cristina Oroz Bajo