Art as a Language for Autism

Art as a Language for Autism addresses the clinical challenges that are common in working with autistic spectrum disorder by exploring how artistic expression can provide a communicative language for younger clients who are set in their thought processes and preferences. Exploring how both art and play-based approaches can be effective tools for engaging therapeutic work, this book introduces strategies to help young clients find expressive "languages" that can fully support communication, expression, and empathic understanding, as well as build skills for relaxation, calming, and coping. Building from a foundation of a client's individual strengths and interests, this playful and integrative approach is informed by an awareness of the individual sensory profiles and the developmental needs of children and adolescents with autism. Through a greater awareness of these materials and processes for therapy, the reader will be able to create a space for their young clients to share what they know and care about. This exciting new book is essential reading for clinicians working with children and adolescents on the autism spectrum.

Jane Ferris Richardson is an art therapist, an exhibiting artist, a play therapist, and an associate professor of art therapy at Lesley University. Her developmentally based, integrative approach to working with children merges both art and play.

1. Introduction: The Rainbow Day 2. Listening to What We May Not Hear 3. A Strong Image of the Child with Autism 4. Finding a Language for Feeling 5.Chapter Five: Who is Diagnosis For? 6. A World Between Art and Play 7. Playful Art and Artful Play: an Integrative Approach to Art and Play in Therapy 8. Trusting the Process in Autism 9. Clay, Play, and Connection 10. From Perfectionism to Playfulness 11. Empathy: Understanding the Other Through Art and Play 12. Potential and Possibility for Adolescents 13. The Spectrum and the Continuum 14. Experience Becomes a Doorway: A Parent's Story 15. Conclusion