How can expressive art therapies be used to help children communicate about their social experiences?
Nancy: Art can be used to help children express through metaphor what they can`t express through words. For example, we cut out paper in the shape of islands and ask the kids to draw themselves and everything they would need on their deserted island. For the next week`s session, we put up a big piece of blue mural paper representing the ocean and we ask them to put their islands in the ocean. That`s really where the fun starts to happen. In addition to building negotiating skills by working out who is getting which spot in the ocean, we find that they communicate so much about their social experience through what they have drawn. We have some groups where some kids want to immediately connect with someone else`s island. The kids will ask, “Can I draw a bridge to your island?” or they will say “I`m going to have a boat near my island so I can choose to go and visit someone if I want to.” On the other hand, we`ve also had kids that draw barbed wire around their island and big “Keep Out!”
