Art Lessons for a young Artist with Asperger syndrome
By: Gillian J. Furniss
Source: Art Education 62 NO. 3 18-23.
This article addresses the art lessons of a young artist with Asperger Syndrome (AS). It discusses the interpersonal relationship between the author, an art teacher, and this young art student with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). It also describes some of the behavior modification techniques I used during art lessons to instruct the young artist. It describes artmaking in terms of subject matter, art materials, and the environment. I acted as curator of this young artist's first solo art exhibit at Macy Gallery, Teachers College, Columbia University. I discuss how working in these areas of great interest for this young artist with AS contributed to advance his artistic talents and acquisition of skills. In addition, this work may have impacted his interpersonal skills and social communication skills, including his use of social language.
*(Examples of Benjamin's artwork are provided at the end of the article.)
Brief History
Despite recent progress in understanding autism as a pervasive developmental disorder with neurological origins (Frith, 2003), individuals with autism still are seen primarily as having disabilities. Disabilities are conditions characterized by functional limitations that impede development such as physical or sensory impairments, difficulty in learning or social adjustment (Heward, 2003). At present, criteria for diagnosis of autism include impairments in social communication skills, impairments in interpersonal relationship skills, and repetitive and restrictive behavior and areas of interest (DSM-IV). British psychiatrist and physician Dr. Lorna Wing explains the autistic spectrum of individuals, stating that, "The continuum ranges from the most profoundly physically and mentally retarded person, who has social impairments as one item among a multitude of problems, to the most able, highly intelligent person with social impairment in its subtlest form as his only disability" (Park, 2001, p. 22).
Asperger Syndrome is one of the Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). It is dissimilar to autism in that individuals with Asperger Syndrome have very good speech and language abilities, and score high on I.Q. tests. Often they have difficulty establishing friendships with peers. In the 1940s, the Austrian Dr. Hans Asperger identified a small group of children that now would be identified as having characteristics of Asperger Syndrome (Frith, 2003). These children had "a lack of or inadequate social relatedness" and "difficulties in the areas of affective reaction, nature and range of interests, and social use of language" (Paradiz, 2002, p. 69). Asperger Syndrome has been considered a separate disorder since the 1990s (Tammet, 2006). Some individuals with autism and Asperger Syndrome demonstrate talent and skill in the visual arts (Furniss, 2008b; Kellman, 1999; Park, 2001; Sacks, 1995; Selfe, 1977).
The Young Artist and His Early Drawings
I received an e-mail from the father of Benjamin, a boy with Asperger Syndrome, He had searched for quite some time for someone to give art lessons to his son. I had worked before with children diagnosed with autism, but not Asperger Syndrome. I wrote my dissertation on the role of intervention in the early artmaking of Jessica Park, who is now an artist with autism (Furniss, 2008c). I was already familiar with Jessica Park's world of autism, and her obsessions of prime numbers, diseases, and weather phenomenon. Jessica referred to her happy obsessions as "enthusiasms" (Furniss, 2008c; Park, 2001). I knew that family members who live with a child with ASD often must adjust, and accommodate within reason, to these bizarre ways of thinking and behaving in order to function on a daily basis.
I met Benjamin and his father for the first time in New York City during the summer of 2006. Benjamin was 13 years old. His hair was dark and fell below his shoulders. Although a typical awkward pre-adolescent in some ways, he made graceful sweeping movements, his hands and arms flowing in the air. This self-stimulatory behavior or "stims" are repetitive bodily movements such as rocking or hand flapping that may be performed to process and regulate sensory information in the body. This first meeting was an opportunity for me to review his past visual repertoire(FN1) (see Figure 1). First, I looked at a pile of Benjamin's earlier drawings. I flipped through them while making mental notes to myself and asking specific questions along the way. There were also some framed drawings on display in the living room. Most of the drawings were not dated, although his parents were able to put them in chronological order and identify their sources of inspiration. I categorized the subject matter of Benjamin's drawings into themes--mostly groups of family members--either humans such as his own family or Disney animated movie characters, or specific species of animals, such as wild cats from picture books. He seemed most concerned with the specific relationship between family members.
I told his parents that I could teach Benjamin to take directions from me as his art teacher, expand his visual repertoire, and encourage participation in discussions. Clearly, his drawings demonstrated that he was not just copying images from the Internet or old family photographs. Rather, he had the ability to interpret what he saw. His vivid imagination as represented in his drawings of objects, animals, and people was noteworthy for such a young artist. Benjamin depicted graceful fingers, tails, and long flowing hair with elongated and curved lines (see Figures 2 and 3).
The learning objectives I envisioned for Benjamin included: (1) learning to take direction from an art teacher, (2) introducing him to new subject matter, and (3) gaining exposure to new art materials, beyond the ones he already preferred. I was not familiar with teaching methods for young artists with ASD. Therefore, it was necessary for me to improvise and develop an approach by trial and error. His parents were impressed with my knowledge of literature and research regarding Asperger Syndrome, my experience teaching art to children with autism and those who are neurotypical, and my basic understanding of their son's individual needs during the art process.
Benjamin's lessons were one-hour long, once a week. I arrived at the same time on the same day. The lessons took place in Benjamin's bedroom, the space he used for artmaking and inspiration. On bookshelves was a collection of favorite animated movie videos, stuffed and plastic toy animals, books, and piles of drawings. In this room, he frequently drew spontaneous drawings.(FN2) Therefore, there was no change in terms of the environment where his artmaking occurred. My presence as his art teacher was a new condition to his artmaking at home, acting as an aspect of the intervention. Initially, it was challenging for him to take directions for 60 minutes. "Is the lesson over yet?" he asked impatiently. "No," I responded firmly, followed by the exact number of minutes remaining.
Establishing an Interpersonal Relationship During Artmaking
Establishing an interpersonal relationship with Benjamin during the art process was necessary. In fostering a student-teacher relationship, I sought to ensure trust and intimacy. I surmised that with art students with ASD, this establishment of an interpersonal relationship would occur not primarily through dialog, but rather through a preferred activity and area of great interest (Furniss, 2008c).
As Benjamin's art teacher, I played a role in advancing his artistic talents and acquisition of skills. He grew more accustomed to my presence and would initiate conversations on occasion. Like many individuals with Asperger Syndrome, Benjamin was straightforward in his speech, lacking in "superficial" social etiquette, sometimes to the point of being indiscreetly direct. However, I was prepared for this and found his remarks and questions refreshing. He asked me, "Gillian, are you married?" and another time, "Are you rich?" One of my favorite questions was, "Do you know any spendthrifts?" I tried to answer him with honesty. One time he Googled the young actress Anne Hathaway and told me I looked like her. I answered, "That's flattering, but not true."
I understood that if he looked forward to my visits, he would learn that working with an art teacher was a meaningful experience. This approach differed from art therapy in that my role was not to interpret his drawings or establish a therapeutic relationship. It also differed from applied behavior analysis because I did not only alter his observable behavior and condition a response, but rather I acknowledged his unique and complex mental processes, such as his choice to re-start drawing an image.
Identifying Visual Obsessions
I began with observing and documenting his art process during spontaneous artmaking. During our first art lessons, he decided what visual obsessions(FN3) to draw, in what sequence, and duration, and selected the art materials he preferred to use. Benjamin's visual obsessions were time sensitive. He would be intensely interested in drawing them when he chose, rather than when I verbally prompted him at a later point in the lesson. This early phase went rather smoothly, and he talked to, and often at, me about his visual obsessions. I learned from his mother that he drew some of his visual obsessions consistently throughout childhood. Still others came, disappeared, and then reappeared later. One consistent visual obsession seen in his work was drawings of wild cats, particularly lions, leopards, and tigers. Inspiration for these drawings came from a favorite picture book from his childhood and Disney animated movies.
On a few occasions during lessons, Benjamin rejected a drawing he began and started to draw on a new piece of paper. It was not obvious to me why he felt the need to restart drawing the same image. I asked him why he had to start again and he answered, "Because I don't like the way it looks" He often used photo references from the Internet when drawing. I was astonished at how well he Googled images. He was familiar with all of the characters of the Disney movie The Lion King and its sequels and their relationships to one another. Sometimes he would initiate a conversation about his art, "Do you know '[a particular character]'?" He would ask. "No," I would say. While drawing, he enthusiastically described who they were. More often than not, I was not familiar with the specific characters or the movie scripts he knew by heart and was often able to quote verbatim. His mother used to write above his drawings what Benjamin dictated to her (see Figure 4).
Over time I began to understand how he retrieved from his visual memory objects in motion he has seen in animated movies. I observed him drawing a particular dinosaur from the video The Land Before Time. He began to draw the body at a very unusual point, the neck, and continued toward the tail, making a great arch that was cropped at the edge of the paper. He drew the head last, Then he erased the tail and end of the body, and then the head. "Why are you erasing?" I asked. He explained because it was "not right" and he had to fix it. He was very confident in this assessment, and I allowed him to continue. He erased and redrew the front and end. He drew the body curved naturally as if in space. It occurred to me that his knowledge of structure and form for drawing dinosaurs might be the result of his exposure to the animated movie. Later, I conveyed my observations and assessment to his mother and she thought it possible.
Drawing famous individuals of African descent was a popular theme of his obsessions. "I like to draw Black people," he explained. He was very interested in Paul Robeson, the talented singer and stage actor, and Madge Sinclair, a Black actress originally from Jamaica. In Googling 'Madge Sinclair,' he found many photographs including one of his favorites where she was wearing a traditional African dress. He drew her with great skill using his favorite mechanical pencil and this photograph as reference. He was frustrated that he did not have the perfect brown color marker for her skin. Later when the lesson was finished, I suggested to his mother she and Benjamin go shopping at a local art supply store and let him choose a marker of the correct color brown.
Verbally Prompting Visual Obsessions
Gradually I asked Benjamin to alter his artmaking. I verbally prompted him to draw a particular visual obsession at a particular time, using his preferred art material, a mechanical pencil, I said, "Draw Mufasa from The Lion King" Other times, I verbally and physically prompted him to use a different art material, such as a charcoal pencil or black pen for his drawings He did not like the way the charcoal pencil dragged across the smooth white paper or that he could not erase lines. Nevertheless his drawing of 'Mufasa' was praiseworthy (see Figure 5) (Furniss, 2007).
There were other sequences of lessons. After completing five verbally prompted drawings, I told him he could draw anything he wanted as a reward. Once he drew something I had not seen before, the character "Pongo" from Disney's movie 101 Dalmatians. His mother said afterward, "Oh, I haven't seen him draw Pongo in years," and provided an earlier drawing (see Figure 6). This is an example of a visual obsession disappearing for a certain time period and then reappearing in a more sophisticated manner.
Expanding Visual Repertoire
It took four one-hour lessons for Benjamin to draw a verbally prompted subject matter beyond his visual obsessions. I learned some of the things he was not good at drawing by verbally prompting him to draw specific objects or people using his preferred art materials. He was not interested in drawing specific trees, himself riding in a school bus, or his dad sailing in a sailboat; all examples of his true life experiences. Initially these drawings were less sophisticated than drawings representing his visual obsessions. Sometimes he just made a few random lines that remotely resembled the object and said firmly, "There." Often when I asked, he would say he just didn't want to draw or he would Google something totally different without my consent. Thus it was with effort that I conditioned him to adhere to my requests.
Other times, I prompted him to draw something that demonstrated his well-developed imagination, Prompts included: "Draw yourself as an adult" and "Draw yourself as an old man" (see Figure 7). My attempts to have him paint certain subject matter using watercolor were unsuccessful. He made a few uninspired brushstrokes and said, "There!" before pushing the paper away.
During one period of refusal, I got him to focus by saying, "Hands on the table ... good job." He would pay attention, place his hands on the table, and then I would give a command to resume the lesson. I established that I would verbally prompt him five times, and then he could draw anything he wanted the sixth time as a reward. The routine reduced his anxiety of not knowing what to expect next. He would keep count, and say, "The next drawing, I can draw anything I want, right?" I would answer, "That's right. Just one more to go."
An Art Exhibit of Benjamin's Early Drawings
In 2007, I won a grant from The Teachers College President's Office of Community and Diversity to curate an art exhibit at Macy Gallery, Teachers College, in New York City. Celebrating the Early Drawings of Benjamin was one of the first exhibits of an artist with a developmental disability at Macy Gallery. Dr. Judith Burton, my doctoral advisor and Director of Art and Art Education Program, was impressed with a sampling of early drawings by Benjamin. The exhibit provided an opportunity to publicly acknowledge Benjamin as a talented young visual artist.
The Macy Gallery art reception also gave me the opportunity to meet Benjamin's extended family. I told them that it was my hope that in the future Benjamin would speak publicly about his experiences as an artist with Asperger Syndrome and advocate for artists with ASD. Having a solo art exhibit enabled Benjamin not only to celebrate his growth as an artist, but also to expand his social skills in a supportive environment centering on his interests, talents, and skills. Although it would be difficult to argue that this art exhibit alone caused him to develop confidence, I did see a significant change in his social behavior.
Benjamin's Progress and Future Success as an Artist
Benjamin's visual repertoire has expanded significantly since the beginning of our art lessons. Recently, Benjamin drew a holiday card on the computer with his mom. She told him to draw the holiday theme of the lion and the lamb. When asked to color the drawing in a computer drawing program, something he did not like to do, he did it quickly with little enthusiasm and then said curtly, "There..." and refused to do any more, His father showed me the holiday card the next art lesson (see Figure 8). Benjamin had done a fine drawing of something he did not want to do, but was told to do. I do not think he would have been able to do that a year ago.
In April 2008, Benjamin was one of the young artists with ASD in the group art exhibit, The Artistic Spectrum: Artwork by Young People on the Autistic Spectrum, to celebrate Autism Awareness Month at The Jewish Community Center in Manhattan. On display was the process of his holiday card: the original pencil drawing, the colored computer drawing, and the final card. I attended the reception with Benjamin and his mother, who had worked with Benjamin on the holiday card project and submitted his entry to the art exhibit. Benjamin was in great spirits. I told him, "Great job, Benjamin."
Implications for Art Education
It is important that art educators encourage the talents and skills of young artists with Asperger Syndrome. These children may be able to make art during free time at home and in more structured environments such as school. Their preference to represent visual obsessions during the art process should be validated, respected, and celebrated in the school environment. Art teachers should be trained to support the verbal obsessions of these students in order to encourage their unique art process. Art teachers can be trained to know how to expand these students' visual repertoire in terms of subject matter, art materials, and art media during artmaking using behavior modification techniques. Often these young artists are able to verbally express their narrow areas of interests and behaviors. This will enable young artists with Asperger Syndrome to fully participate within the academic art curriculum.
REFERENCES
Frith, U. (2003), Autism: Explaining the enigma, London: Blackwell Publishers.
Furniss, G.J. (2006). Teaching art to children with autism. School Arts, web.
Furniss, G.J. (2007). Practical considerations for teaching artists with autism. School Arts, 6.
Furniss, G.J. (2008a). Art lessons for children with Asperger syndrome. School Arts, 20.
Furniss, G.J. (2008b). Celebrating the artmaking of children with autism. Art Education, 61(5), 8-12.
Furniss, G.J. (2008c). The role of intervention in the early artmaking of Jessica Park: Evidence to suggest enhanced visual reciprocity (EVR) in a young artist with autism. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York.
Gardner, H. (1980). Artful scribbles. New York: Basic Books.
Hermelin, B. (2001). Bright splinters of the mind: A personal story of research with autistic savants. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Heward, W. J. (2003). Exceptional children: An introduction to special education. Merrill NJ: Prentice Hall.
Kellman, J. (1999). Drawing with Peter: Autobiography, narrative, and the art of a child with autism. Studies in Art Education, 40(3), 258-274.
Paradiz, V. (2002). Elijah's cup: A family's journey into the community and culture of high-functioning autism and Asperger's syndrome. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Park, C. C. (2001). Exiting nirvana: A dughter's life with autism. Boston, MA: Back Bay Books.
Sacks, O. (1995). An anthropologist on Mars. New York: Vintage Books.
Selfe, L. (1977). Nadia: A case of extraordinary drawing ability in an autistic child. New York: Harcourt Brace Javanovich.
Tammet, D. (2006). Born on a blue day: Inside the extraordinary mind of an autistic savant. New York: Free Press.
ADDED MATERIAL
Gillian J. Furniss is Adjunct Professor at Adelphi University and Visiting Associate Professor at Pratt Institute, New York City. E-mail: [email protected].
Source
Ferniss, Gillian J. "Art Lessons for a Young Artist with Asperger Syndrome." Art Education 62.3 (n.d.): 18-23. Web.
Source: Art Education 62 NO. 3 18-23.
This article addresses the art lessons of a young artist with Asperger Syndrome (AS). It discusses the interpersonal relationship between the author, an art teacher, and this young art student with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). It also describes some of the behavior modification techniques I used during art lessons to instruct the young artist. It describes artmaking in terms of subject matter, art materials, and the environment. I acted as curator of this young artist's first solo art exhibit at Macy Gallery, Teachers College, Columbia University. I discuss how working in these areas of great interest for this young artist with AS contributed to advance his artistic talents and acquisition of skills. In addition, this work may have impacted his interpersonal skills and social communication skills, including his use of social language.
*(Examples of Benjamin's artwork are provided at the end of the article.)
Brief History
Despite recent progress in understanding autism as a pervasive developmental disorder with neurological origins (Frith, 2003), individuals with autism still are seen primarily as having disabilities. Disabilities are conditions characterized by functional limitations that impede development such as physical or sensory impairments, difficulty in learning or social adjustment (Heward, 2003). At present, criteria for diagnosis of autism include impairments in social communication skills, impairments in interpersonal relationship skills, and repetitive and restrictive behavior and areas of interest (DSM-IV). British psychiatrist and physician Dr. Lorna Wing explains the autistic spectrum of individuals, stating that, "The continuum ranges from the most profoundly physically and mentally retarded person, who has social impairments as one item among a multitude of problems, to the most able, highly intelligent person with social impairment in its subtlest form as his only disability" (Park, 2001, p. 22).
Asperger Syndrome is one of the Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). It is dissimilar to autism in that individuals with Asperger Syndrome have very good speech and language abilities, and score high on I.Q. tests. Often they have difficulty establishing friendships with peers. In the 1940s, the Austrian Dr. Hans Asperger identified a small group of children that now would be identified as having characteristics of Asperger Syndrome (Frith, 2003). These children had "a lack of or inadequate social relatedness" and "difficulties in the areas of affective reaction, nature and range of interests, and social use of language" (Paradiz, 2002, p. 69). Asperger Syndrome has been considered a separate disorder since the 1990s (Tammet, 2006). Some individuals with autism and Asperger Syndrome demonstrate talent and skill in the visual arts (Furniss, 2008b; Kellman, 1999; Park, 2001; Sacks, 1995; Selfe, 1977).
The Young Artist and His Early Drawings
I received an e-mail from the father of Benjamin, a boy with Asperger Syndrome, He had searched for quite some time for someone to give art lessons to his son. I had worked before with children diagnosed with autism, but not Asperger Syndrome. I wrote my dissertation on the role of intervention in the early artmaking of Jessica Park, who is now an artist with autism (Furniss, 2008c). I was already familiar with Jessica Park's world of autism, and her obsessions of prime numbers, diseases, and weather phenomenon. Jessica referred to her happy obsessions as "enthusiasms" (Furniss, 2008c; Park, 2001). I knew that family members who live with a child with ASD often must adjust, and accommodate within reason, to these bizarre ways of thinking and behaving in order to function on a daily basis.
I met Benjamin and his father for the first time in New York City during the summer of 2006. Benjamin was 13 years old. His hair was dark and fell below his shoulders. Although a typical awkward pre-adolescent in some ways, he made graceful sweeping movements, his hands and arms flowing in the air. This self-stimulatory behavior or "stims" are repetitive bodily movements such as rocking or hand flapping that may be performed to process and regulate sensory information in the body. This first meeting was an opportunity for me to review his past visual repertoire(FN1) (see Figure 1). First, I looked at a pile of Benjamin's earlier drawings. I flipped through them while making mental notes to myself and asking specific questions along the way. There were also some framed drawings on display in the living room. Most of the drawings were not dated, although his parents were able to put them in chronological order and identify their sources of inspiration. I categorized the subject matter of Benjamin's drawings into themes--mostly groups of family members--either humans such as his own family or Disney animated movie characters, or specific species of animals, such as wild cats from picture books. He seemed most concerned with the specific relationship between family members.
I told his parents that I could teach Benjamin to take directions from me as his art teacher, expand his visual repertoire, and encourage participation in discussions. Clearly, his drawings demonstrated that he was not just copying images from the Internet or old family photographs. Rather, he had the ability to interpret what he saw. His vivid imagination as represented in his drawings of objects, animals, and people was noteworthy for such a young artist. Benjamin depicted graceful fingers, tails, and long flowing hair with elongated and curved lines (see Figures 2 and 3).
The learning objectives I envisioned for Benjamin included: (1) learning to take direction from an art teacher, (2) introducing him to new subject matter, and (3) gaining exposure to new art materials, beyond the ones he already preferred. I was not familiar with teaching methods for young artists with ASD. Therefore, it was necessary for me to improvise and develop an approach by trial and error. His parents were impressed with my knowledge of literature and research regarding Asperger Syndrome, my experience teaching art to children with autism and those who are neurotypical, and my basic understanding of their son's individual needs during the art process.
Benjamin's lessons were one-hour long, once a week. I arrived at the same time on the same day. The lessons took place in Benjamin's bedroom, the space he used for artmaking and inspiration. On bookshelves was a collection of favorite animated movie videos, stuffed and plastic toy animals, books, and piles of drawings. In this room, he frequently drew spontaneous drawings.(FN2) Therefore, there was no change in terms of the environment where his artmaking occurred. My presence as his art teacher was a new condition to his artmaking at home, acting as an aspect of the intervention. Initially, it was challenging for him to take directions for 60 minutes. "Is the lesson over yet?" he asked impatiently. "No," I responded firmly, followed by the exact number of minutes remaining.
Establishing an Interpersonal Relationship During Artmaking
Establishing an interpersonal relationship with Benjamin during the art process was necessary. In fostering a student-teacher relationship, I sought to ensure trust and intimacy. I surmised that with art students with ASD, this establishment of an interpersonal relationship would occur not primarily through dialog, but rather through a preferred activity and area of great interest (Furniss, 2008c).
As Benjamin's art teacher, I played a role in advancing his artistic talents and acquisition of skills. He grew more accustomed to my presence and would initiate conversations on occasion. Like many individuals with Asperger Syndrome, Benjamin was straightforward in his speech, lacking in "superficial" social etiquette, sometimes to the point of being indiscreetly direct. However, I was prepared for this and found his remarks and questions refreshing. He asked me, "Gillian, are you married?" and another time, "Are you rich?" One of my favorite questions was, "Do you know any spendthrifts?" I tried to answer him with honesty. One time he Googled the young actress Anne Hathaway and told me I looked like her. I answered, "That's flattering, but not true."
I understood that if he looked forward to my visits, he would learn that working with an art teacher was a meaningful experience. This approach differed from art therapy in that my role was not to interpret his drawings or establish a therapeutic relationship. It also differed from applied behavior analysis because I did not only alter his observable behavior and condition a response, but rather I acknowledged his unique and complex mental processes, such as his choice to re-start drawing an image.
Identifying Visual Obsessions
I began with observing and documenting his art process during spontaneous artmaking. During our first art lessons, he decided what visual obsessions(FN3) to draw, in what sequence, and duration, and selected the art materials he preferred to use. Benjamin's visual obsessions were time sensitive. He would be intensely interested in drawing them when he chose, rather than when I verbally prompted him at a later point in the lesson. This early phase went rather smoothly, and he talked to, and often at, me about his visual obsessions. I learned from his mother that he drew some of his visual obsessions consistently throughout childhood. Still others came, disappeared, and then reappeared later. One consistent visual obsession seen in his work was drawings of wild cats, particularly lions, leopards, and tigers. Inspiration for these drawings came from a favorite picture book from his childhood and Disney animated movies.
On a few occasions during lessons, Benjamin rejected a drawing he began and started to draw on a new piece of paper. It was not obvious to me why he felt the need to restart drawing the same image. I asked him why he had to start again and he answered, "Because I don't like the way it looks" He often used photo references from the Internet when drawing. I was astonished at how well he Googled images. He was familiar with all of the characters of the Disney movie The Lion King and its sequels and their relationships to one another. Sometimes he would initiate a conversation about his art, "Do you know '[a particular character]'?" He would ask. "No," I would say. While drawing, he enthusiastically described who they were. More often than not, I was not familiar with the specific characters or the movie scripts he knew by heart and was often able to quote verbatim. His mother used to write above his drawings what Benjamin dictated to her (see Figure 4).
Over time I began to understand how he retrieved from his visual memory objects in motion he has seen in animated movies. I observed him drawing a particular dinosaur from the video The Land Before Time. He began to draw the body at a very unusual point, the neck, and continued toward the tail, making a great arch that was cropped at the edge of the paper. He drew the head last, Then he erased the tail and end of the body, and then the head. "Why are you erasing?" I asked. He explained because it was "not right" and he had to fix it. He was very confident in this assessment, and I allowed him to continue. He erased and redrew the front and end. He drew the body curved naturally as if in space. It occurred to me that his knowledge of structure and form for drawing dinosaurs might be the result of his exposure to the animated movie. Later, I conveyed my observations and assessment to his mother and she thought it possible.
Drawing famous individuals of African descent was a popular theme of his obsessions. "I like to draw Black people," he explained. He was very interested in Paul Robeson, the talented singer and stage actor, and Madge Sinclair, a Black actress originally from Jamaica. In Googling 'Madge Sinclair,' he found many photographs including one of his favorites where she was wearing a traditional African dress. He drew her with great skill using his favorite mechanical pencil and this photograph as reference. He was frustrated that he did not have the perfect brown color marker for her skin. Later when the lesson was finished, I suggested to his mother she and Benjamin go shopping at a local art supply store and let him choose a marker of the correct color brown.
Verbally Prompting Visual Obsessions
Gradually I asked Benjamin to alter his artmaking. I verbally prompted him to draw a particular visual obsession at a particular time, using his preferred art material, a mechanical pencil, I said, "Draw Mufasa from The Lion King" Other times, I verbally and physically prompted him to use a different art material, such as a charcoal pencil or black pen for his drawings He did not like the way the charcoal pencil dragged across the smooth white paper or that he could not erase lines. Nevertheless his drawing of 'Mufasa' was praiseworthy (see Figure 5) (Furniss, 2007).
There were other sequences of lessons. After completing five verbally prompted drawings, I told him he could draw anything he wanted as a reward. Once he drew something I had not seen before, the character "Pongo" from Disney's movie 101 Dalmatians. His mother said afterward, "Oh, I haven't seen him draw Pongo in years," and provided an earlier drawing (see Figure 6). This is an example of a visual obsession disappearing for a certain time period and then reappearing in a more sophisticated manner.
Expanding Visual Repertoire
It took four one-hour lessons for Benjamin to draw a verbally prompted subject matter beyond his visual obsessions. I learned some of the things he was not good at drawing by verbally prompting him to draw specific objects or people using his preferred art materials. He was not interested in drawing specific trees, himself riding in a school bus, or his dad sailing in a sailboat; all examples of his true life experiences. Initially these drawings were less sophisticated than drawings representing his visual obsessions. Sometimes he just made a few random lines that remotely resembled the object and said firmly, "There." Often when I asked, he would say he just didn't want to draw or he would Google something totally different without my consent. Thus it was with effort that I conditioned him to adhere to my requests.
Other times, I prompted him to draw something that demonstrated his well-developed imagination, Prompts included: "Draw yourself as an adult" and "Draw yourself as an old man" (see Figure 7). My attempts to have him paint certain subject matter using watercolor were unsuccessful. He made a few uninspired brushstrokes and said, "There!" before pushing the paper away.
During one period of refusal, I got him to focus by saying, "Hands on the table ... good job." He would pay attention, place his hands on the table, and then I would give a command to resume the lesson. I established that I would verbally prompt him five times, and then he could draw anything he wanted the sixth time as a reward. The routine reduced his anxiety of not knowing what to expect next. He would keep count, and say, "The next drawing, I can draw anything I want, right?" I would answer, "That's right. Just one more to go."
An Art Exhibit of Benjamin's Early Drawings
In 2007, I won a grant from The Teachers College President's Office of Community and Diversity to curate an art exhibit at Macy Gallery, Teachers College, in New York City. Celebrating the Early Drawings of Benjamin was one of the first exhibits of an artist with a developmental disability at Macy Gallery. Dr. Judith Burton, my doctoral advisor and Director of Art and Art Education Program, was impressed with a sampling of early drawings by Benjamin. The exhibit provided an opportunity to publicly acknowledge Benjamin as a talented young visual artist.
The Macy Gallery art reception also gave me the opportunity to meet Benjamin's extended family. I told them that it was my hope that in the future Benjamin would speak publicly about his experiences as an artist with Asperger Syndrome and advocate for artists with ASD. Having a solo art exhibit enabled Benjamin not only to celebrate his growth as an artist, but also to expand his social skills in a supportive environment centering on his interests, talents, and skills. Although it would be difficult to argue that this art exhibit alone caused him to develop confidence, I did see a significant change in his social behavior.
Benjamin's Progress and Future Success as an Artist
Benjamin's visual repertoire has expanded significantly since the beginning of our art lessons. Recently, Benjamin drew a holiday card on the computer with his mom. She told him to draw the holiday theme of the lion and the lamb. When asked to color the drawing in a computer drawing program, something he did not like to do, he did it quickly with little enthusiasm and then said curtly, "There..." and refused to do any more, His father showed me the holiday card the next art lesson (see Figure 8). Benjamin had done a fine drawing of something he did not want to do, but was told to do. I do not think he would have been able to do that a year ago.
In April 2008, Benjamin was one of the young artists with ASD in the group art exhibit, The Artistic Spectrum: Artwork by Young People on the Autistic Spectrum, to celebrate Autism Awareness Month at The Jewish Community Center in Manhattan. On display was the process of his holiday card: the original pencil drawing, the colored computer drawing, and the final card. I attended the reception with Benjamin and his mother, who had worked with Benjamin on the holiday card project and submitted his entry to the art exhibit. Benjamin was in great spirits. I told him, "Great job, Benjamin."
Implications for Art Education
It is important that art educators encourage the talents and skills of young artists with Asperger Syndrome. These children may be able to make art during free time at home and in more structured environments such as school. Their preference to represent visual obsessions during the art process should be validated, respected, and celebrated in the school environment. Art teachers should be trained to support the verbal obsessions of these students in order to encourage their unique art process. Art teachers can be trained to know how to expand these students' visual repertoire in terms of subject matter, art materials, and art media during artmaking using behavior modification techniques. Often these young artists are able to verbally express their narrow areas of interests and behaviors. This will enable young artists with Asperger Syndrome to fully participate within the academic art curriculum.
REFERENCES
Frith, U. (2003), Autism: Explaining the enigma, London: Blackwell Publishers.
Furniss, G.J. (2006). Teaching art to children with autism. School Arts, web.
Furniss, G.J. (2007). Practical considerations for teaching artists with autism. School Arts, 6.
Furniss, G.J. (2008a). Art lessons for children with Asperger syndrome. School Arts, 20.
Furniss, G.J. (2008b). Celebrating the artmaking of children with autism. Art Education, 61(5), 8-12.
Furniss, G.J. (2008c). The role of intervention in the early artmaking of Jessica Park: Evidence to suggest enhanced visual reciprocity (EVR) in a young artist with autism. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York.
Gardner, H. (1980). Artful scribbles. New York: Basic Books.
Hermelin, B. (2001). Bright splinters of the mind: A personal story of research with autistic savants. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Heward, W. J. (2003). Exceptional children: An introduction to special education. Merrill NJ: Prentice Hall.
Kellman, J. (1999). Drawing with Peter: Autobiography, narrative, and the art of a child with autism. Studies in Art Education, 40(3), 258-274.
Paradiz, V. (2002). Elijah's cup: A family's journey into the community and culture of high-functioning autism and Asperger's syndrome. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Park, C. C. (2001). Exiting nirvana: A dughter's life with autism. Boston, MA: Back Bay Books.
Sacks, O. (1995). An anthropologist on Mars. New York: Vintage Books.
Selfe, L. (1977). Nadia: A case of extraordinary drawing ability in an autistic child. New York: Harcourt Brace Javanovich.
Tammet, D. (2006). Born on a blue day: Inside the extraordinary mind of an autistic savant. New York: Free Press.
ADDED MATERIAL
Gillian J. Furniss is Adjunct Professor at Adelphi University and Visiting Associate Professor at Pratt Institute, New York City. E-mail: [email protected].
Source
Ferniss, Gillian J. "Art Lessons for a Young Artist with Asperger Syndrome." Art Education 62.3 (n.d.): 18-23. Web.