If you weren't taught in a way that didn't make you love art, then don't teach it the way you learned art. Don't look at websites with fees for lessons and memberships that want you to teach art in the same way that you didn't enjoy. I have some insights that may help.
Pinterest is a great tool to get lots of ideas to you. I can look at a picture of a project for inspiration and know how to teach it. But I also know there are a lot of people that cant do that. So here are links that are sure to find art that your child wants to create. They are from all over the world and divided by the order that ones skills are developed.
Learn more on our Pinterest Boards
When you are working on a process art project with a special needs child, you don't always have time to refresh the web page nor do you have enough clean fingers to arrow down through the advertising. So just print the chapters that you want and then put the selected directions in a 3 ring notebook so it is always in front of you. Breathe...and enjoy being creative.
Hope's experiences as a special needs artist have given her great insights in how to keep art interesting and full of discovery. Her interest in the world came from wanting to paint it or make it. Her mind was always on art. She was always on the look out for new tools or supplies as a child. Read the story on why she wanted a green bean for a "flower" in the grocery store.
God challenged me when he gave me a beautiful baby girl with the most incredible smile ever and some unique challenges. She choose the path of art and music to connect to her world. The two very things that I was most uncomfortable with. Go figure... Look at her now. She is the flower in our logo.
DEDICATION
This website and our printable resources were inspired by my amazingly talented and courageous child, Hope Marie. She taught me how to connect with her through music inspired art and its changed both of our lives. Now she has inspired me to joyfully share those experiences so that with others can create that bridge to their better self through art and music.
HOPE'S JOURNEY:
Hope’s journey to wanting to write a book series on art and music and becoming a graphic artist was not an easy one. She was spinning with energy and curiosity from the moment that I bought her home. She became tenacious toddler that loved to be creative and explore. As soon as she started interacting more with the world around her, I noticed (fairly quickly) that music inspired her and made her more playful and creative. She listened to reggae like from Dragon Tales, children’s lullaby’s and songs, Beach Boys, classical and just about anything that was cheerful and upbeat. Her favorite music CD was ironically produced the year she was born... Don Campbell's "The Mozart Effect- Music for Children...Relax, daydream and Draw.
It was like music settled her mind and body. She almost craved artistic uses of common things in the house when it was on. We finger painted and played in regular spreadable items from the kitchen... baby food of different colors, rice cereal, whipped cream, pudding, yogurt, applesauce, frosting, Jello, ice cream or even snow etc. Even dry ingredients like oatmeal, rice, flour etc on a cookie tray or plate became entertaining. If I was in the kitchen she was playing there. Play dough in our house was sugar cookie dough or like Duncan Hines Frosting powder without only enough water to dampen it. We flavored and colored supplies with Jello, Kool-aide or food coloring if she wanted color or flavor. She also loved a simple peanut butter play dough recipe that I picked up from working at the YMCA. It was 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of peanut butter- I don’t think I will ever forget that one.
Other than "building" and creating with her felt board pieces, most of her early art were things that Hope and I thought up spontaneously as we put household items together. Everything in her world seemed to become an option for an art project. Sometimes I just had to "go where she was" emotionally that day and adapt. Other days, I had her choose from 2-3 activities that I had prepped and tried out myself. Most of the time her request to create something was sudden. She seldom wore more that a diaper so she could get messy anytime. She enjoyed that. Like one day she was tearing up paper into little pieces and having a ball. I saw some clear contact paper on the shelf and… WA LA we had a project. She made her first collage.
Another morning she was exploring what things she could paint and was discovering that paint did not stick to everything. When I thought that would make a great collage to help her remember. So we got out a piece of red construction paper and glue and began making a collage for the wall in her art area.
A few weeks later, I happened to remember buying some extra Easter egg coloring kits. So we played for awhile just putting things in the dye to see if the color actually dyed the items or rolled off them. The most interesting one was seashells- they took to a lot of egg coloring techniques just like the eggs did. As expected the red came out the brightest and the others looked mostly pastel-colored. The other dying methods worked the same as eggs.
I always made Hope feel like she was exploring or discovering something and she would engage easily.
Stamping with sponges has always one of my favorite crafts that anyone can do. Her room was painted with them for the border between two colors. So I had lots of them. Hope always wanted to have her hands busy so painting with her sponges was quick, easy and she ended up with a project to be proud of.
Another early art supply was HUGE stencils – The really big ones. Like she could peek through the holes and we could see most of her face. We used the cutout to paint around and the outer stencil to give her projects shape. If she needed a kitty in her picture she would dip a cookie cutter in the paint and stamp it into her picture. Some art supplies were left out for spontaneous creations but most were put up out of reach because she always wanted to do something artistic. She had an over a door paper roll that was out at all times.
At Age 3 1/2- Hope was diagnosed with PDD NOS-with accompanying Auditory processing disorder-Sensory processing Disorder-Visual processing deficits- low fine motor control and finger strength. Occupational therapy became a must. I appreciated their suggestions and they introduced me to the How Does Your Engine Run sensory approach. (LINK https://www.alertprogram.com/new-to-alert-program/ )
Music inspired artwork became a tool to help her develop appropriate sensory integration. Toys were purchased specifically for the skills she needed. Therapeutic music was researched to aid in Auditory Processing Deficits and sensory processing. That is when we met with Dr, Ron Minson and learned about Advanced Brain Technologies(ABT) music and The Listening Program (TLP). There are so many skills that Hope acquired at a much faster rate when she was on The Listening program. I could play it for her at home with her while doing an art project. She loved her listening time every day. They also had a big collection of music that slipped right into her life, her favorite CD became one customized for people with sensory integration issues. It not only helped her be more playful and creative, it helped her coordination and improved her cognitive skills. It was like it organized her brain so that her mind and body connection was enhanced. To me, both the special needs child and the “normal” child could benefit from The Listening Program because of its many benefits. I cannot imagine what our lives would be like without ABT music and The Listening Program. It is the best decision I ever made for her.
We became authorized providers and started a website with research on various special needs that doctors were not even prepared for. It became my final project for my master’s degree. The summer before Hope went you kindergarten was one of the most worrisome summers of my life. I was so concerned that they wouldn’t understand her or know how to help her learn. I was afraid she wasn’t ready for the discipline of a classroom. Her sensory and social skills were so far behind. We considered private and charter schools. However, even putting her in art classes was frustrating; others hated to slow down for her so they make her feel uncomfortable and unskilled. When really she just needed more time or to adapt the lesson so she could complete it her way. Teachers often wanted it done exactly as the directions showed them to do it. Until she met Annie Scardino in her 3rd grade, an art instructor in a local charter school, that understood her visual issues and how to adapt. Then Hope was encouraged in a group setting and her skills soared. Students would look at her projects for ideas as she always confidently and spontaneously added her own bits of creativity. Her work was beginning to be noticed in community and school art shows.
Never in a million years would I have believed that the child that I had then, would conquer all that she has with the power of TLP. No one would have ever thought that by the time that she entered high school that she would have earned a scholarship for half of her college tuition or have a modeling contract. To me it’s a no-brainer, The Listening Program is worth the try. Here's a link to learn more about it