Does your child love to paint? Do they enjoy the tactile experience of clay between their fingers? No matter which medium they are drawn to, art can be a powerful tool for education, particularly for children with autism. Whether it’s charcoal, watercolours, multi-media, or dance, art can develop fine motor skills, enhance communication, and provide an outlet for self-expression. 

Here are ten ways to efficiently incorporate art into education programs for children with autism in Burlington.

1. Visual Storytelling

Some children with autism tend to bottle up their emotions and withdraw. Some are nonverbal. Some are simply just shy. No matter what the reluctance may be to communicate, art can act as an alternative means of expression. For instance, you can introduce visual storytelling through drawing or painting. Using art in a practical way can help children express their emotions, thoughts, and daily challenges. While you are working with your child, provide prompts, such as “Draw a picture about how school went today.” The act of getting an experience down on paper can encourage self-expression and build emotional awareness.

2. Sensory Art Projects

There aren’t that many opportunities during a regular classroom session to roll up your sleeves and sink your fingers into a new experience. There should be. Many children with autism simply love sensory experiences. With a little initiative, you can get your child’s educators to incorporate materials like textured paper, clay, or finger paints into a lesson. An added artistic touch can improve sensory integration and make the lesson a calming, enjoyable experience.

3. Collaborative Mural Creation

Does your child’s school have a blank wall that’s just asking to be painted? Talk to your child’s educators about adding a little colour to their world. Group projects like mural painting encourage teamwork and social interaction. If you volunteer to help, you can do things like assign specific roles to each participant based on their strengths, whether it’s sketching, painting, or adding details. Work together with your child’s school, community centre, or do this with their friends at home. Mural making fosters collaboration while respecting individual capabilities.

4. Digital Art Platforms

If you love art but are not a fan of the mess it makes, there’s a practical solution for that. Look into digital art tools as an alternative option. There are amazing programs and apps such as Photoshop, Procreate, or Midjourney to provide a boundless, portable creative outlet. These platforms are especially beneficial for children who are more comfortable with technology than traditional art materials.

5. Emotion-Based Art Activities

Do you find your child could use some help getting ‘in tune’ with their emotions? Art is an excellent way to channel feelings into one’s work. Team up with your child’s educators, or set aside some time at home, to create activities where the children associate colours or shapes with emotions. For example, they can paint with what they consider their “happy” colour or draw shapes that represent “sadness” or “frustration” or “calm” to them. Using art to do activities such as this helps children with autism develop emotional literacy in a nonverbal and creative way.

6. Storyboarding For Communication

Your child might have the makings of the next great film director. One of the ways to see if they have an affinity for storytelling through a visual medium is by storyboarding. This comic-strip-like process involves sketching sequences of events, one after another, to narrate an event or experience. Storyboarding can be used to enhance your child’s communication skills by helping them to visualize their ideas and systematically organize their thoughts. Storytelling in this fashion is particularly helpful for children with autism who struggle with verbal communication.

7. Art Therapy Sessions

Although we do not offer art therapy at Monarch House, we can help put you in touch with programs that offer this in Burlington. If you are teaching your child yourself, there is room to Integrate art therapy into your homeschool program by collaborating with a certified art therapist. These sessions can be invaluable to children with autism. They can often be used to address specific challenges, such as anxiety or sensory processing issues.

8. Art And Movement Integration

It’s always a win when you find a fun outlet that gets your child active. One of the ways to do this is by combining art with physical activities, such as dance or theater. This is something you can do at home with a little ingenuity and planning. Set aside a creative zone in your home, get all the materials, and then set up a speaker to get started. Painting to music can engage children in multisensory learning, enhancing their motor and coordination skills.

9. Personalized Art Journals

Taking some time out of the day for mindfulness exercises such as meditation or journaling can help to reduce anxiety and calm the mind. There’s no reason that this can’t be done in a visual way instead through writing. One of the ways that you can do this is by encouraging your child to maintain a daily art journal. This can be a big, colourful booklet that they reach to every day to sketch, paste, or paint. Encourage self expression as well as record-keeping of things that they find important, such as what new words or friends they made that day or how many steps they did with their FitBit. Personalizing their journals helps them take ownership of their creative journey while serving as a visual record of their progress.

10. Cultural And Community Art Projects

One thing about art is that it opens doors to other experiences and points of view. Allow your child’s work to be the means for them to meet other artistic children and explore places like galleries and museums where creativity is celebrated. As much as you can, expose your child to various art forms from different cultures and involve them in community art initiatives. This not only broadens their horizons but also creates an appreciation for diversity.

Art can be a way to tell a story without using words. It can be an outlet to work through unwanted emotions. Art can bring your child’s special interests to life. There are many benefits of incorporating art into autism education, including improved communication, social development, enhanced fine and gross motor skills, and reduced anxiety. Beyond that, it fosters creativity and helps children build confidence in their abilities. At Monarch House we have a professional, interdisciplinary staff of occupational therapists, behavioural therapists, psychotherapists, and speech pathologists that are here to help by offering ways to incorporate art into their home and school life. By tailoring certain activities and classes to your child’s needs and preferences, educators can ensure that art becomes a meaningful and enriching part of their lesson plan for children with autism in Burlington.