Watching children create works of art is amazing. Sometimes it’s little hands moving & creating, smiles & giggles, & even getting a little messy.
Working with children was the inspiration behind my career in Therapeutic arts. I worked in the school system for several years and saw first hand how much help children need; more so today than ever before. So many have difficulty concentrating for more than a minute at a time or focusing altogether, this lack of attention often affects grades and behaviour. Some of these children are labelled as trouble. I believe there are ways of reaching these children.
Another side to this practice is watching in real time, a child figure out something for himself. Sometimes complex emotions other times more simple. And some sessions are simply a calming centering practice. All done with nothing more than markers and paper!
An angry child could begin by painting a whole page black, because that is how she’s feeling in that moment. Then after some introspection, look at it and decide it’s too dark, so she begins to add colour, maybe a sun and some flowers. Maybe she realized things aren’t as bad as they seem or maybe she just didn’t like the dark and chose to add other elements. Either way, this child was in one mood a few minutes ago and now sees things slightly differently.
This is what connecting to yourself through art does. It allows for a space in time to process without outside influences or distractions.
I’m not so interested in the causes, however I suspect screens & technology are high on the list. What concerns me is the lack of tools and understanding available to help these children.
I am here to tell you that help is available and can even be free. All it takes is a little effort. Google and YouTube will be your best friend. There are many instructional videos online, some just a few minutes long and with the use of tools you likely already have. Paper, pens, pencils, it doesn’t matter what materials you use and what the end result looks like. This shouldn’t be stressful. The point of these types of activities with children and adults should be a few minutes of not too much thinking and some fun in creating. And, if you want to go a little further read some books, local libraries are a great resource, so is Amazon or sign up for a session!
