Art Therapy as treatment for autism

Mike G. on 10 10, 2009

People who have high functioning autism can be taught at an early age to express themselves through different forms of therapy.In order to lead relatively normal lives, most functional autistic people need to have certain level of social abilities. These abilities can attained through different types of therapies, including expressive therapies. One truly beneficial example of this is art therapy, which is therapy that involves using a number of various art materials such as paints, batik, clay, etc. as a way of expressing thoughts or feelings through visual representation. It is especially effective because art is inherently therapeutic. Also, art therapy is beneficial because it doesn’t rely on verbal or language skills, doesn’t require any skill, it’s fun, it increases self awareness, helps develop social skills, helps develope problem solving strategies, and really helps an autistic person to focus solely on the activity at hand and shut out other thoughts that may be intrusive.