The Autism Society Event and Education Recordings Archive

Not everyone is able to express themselves fully with words all the time. Music, Art, and Drama are just a few ways to help individuals better communicate and more fully interact with the world around them. Learn about these different styles and how to incorporate different techniques into daily living. We have three individuals on the Autism Spectrum who each work with different aspects of Art to connect with other individuals. Two are educators who teach others their skills and two showcase their creative talents enriching the lives of others. This presentation is designed to help individuals implement creative strategies in daily life to improve quality of life and help connect with the world around them. Creative outlets can be used to help reduce stress, find a career path, as a social outlet and many other ways.

Brigid preforms in an award winning Vaudeville troupe doing skits and flow arts as well as working in local films. Through learning to manipulate her staff, she has been able to develop more spatial awareness and a heightened sense of coordination. Brigid learned her social skills through watching movies and this ability has allowed her to embody her different characters. She owes the success of her social skills to the theatrical arts and continues to share her work with others.

Gayle teaches art because it allows her to participate in how people perceive, think, and express themselves. She connects with people who think visually and use verbal language as a second language, like she does. It is also an opportunity to direct others to thinking in a visual and kinesthetic manner and experience the world in a different way, discovering what they can learn from this. Teaching art allows her to introduce ways of seeing, remembering, learning and knowing and expressing to a lot of other people and is able to share in their discoveries and creativity.

Music Therapy is a very wide growing field. Using music to achieve extra-musical goals such as communication, social interaction, motor control, etc. is a common definition for music therapy. However, rather than diving music therapy from the teaching of music or music performance, it may be better to consider the goal of anything related to music (and the other arts as well) as building a human connection with another individual. Stephen’s work is in teaching individuals with autism how to play a musical instrument – in addition to all the intrinsic and therapeutic benefits stemming from engaging in music – also provide a skill in which to develop interactions with others and the community as a musician.

It is important for all people, but especially those on the spectrum, to have creative outlets. This presentation will contain both first hand experiences as well as research supporting strategies being discussed. By having three professionals on the spectrum discussing these topics, audience members can see the product of these approaches first hand. Audience members will also have the opportunity to ask questions to clarify ideas as well as ask the participants for examples for their own situations.

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