For the child caught in the middle of an adverse experience, feelings of safety, predictability, and control can be the first to be stripped away. Particularly, in the young child who is still so reliant on his or her caregivers. However, children can develop coping mechanisms and self-mastery to allow them to successfully navigate life during or following an adverse experience. The skills needed to cope with adversity closely mirror the 21st century learning skills currently being promoted in today’s classrooms. These skills include creative problem solving, critical thinking skills, collaboration, and communication (“P21,” n.d.); all of which are naturally developed through the arts. These skills in turn lead to self-efficacy, or the belief in one’s ability to succeed in certain tasks.
As discussed earlier in this book, resilience is a key to a child’s ability to “bounce back” following adversity or trauma. Children who demonstrate high levels of resilience possess resilience features classified as “I Can”, “I Have”, and “I Am”. (Grotberg, 1996, p. 8) Providing opportunities for children to strengthen their efficacy and life skills builds an inventory of “I Can’s.” I can pour a glass of milk for myself. I can tell my friend that she hurt my feelings. I can calm myself down when I am getting upset. As children recognize their mastery over various tasks, they become more confident in themselves which encourages them to try new things which they may in turn gain mastery over; thus creating a positive upward spiral toward healing and resilience.
Integrating art into lesson plans not only helps students develop a deeper connection to the subject, they explore the subject through a deeper and wider lens providing a more critical and
creative response. Further, depending upon the art form chosen to deliver the subject matter, students may be required to negotiate with classmates, recognize and explain what they are feeling in reaction to the new information, and engage their whole body in the experience. Learning in this way not only reinforces motor skills and hand-eye coordination, but builds exponential neural pathways to the information. Preschool and early elementary students who do not read or read well yet learn best through visual and movement activities that activate multiple senses and intelligences. (Smith, 2001, p. 39) Each of these skills are likely already classroom goals, but when intentionally integrated into the larger picture, they may go a long way in assisting a child in coping with an ongoing adversity or providing healing and growth from a past traumatic experience.
How does art strengthen collaboration?
A major trauma goal is the building or identification of safe relationships. Young children build their relationships through cooperation and interactive play. Providing a variety of experiences that encourage children to interact allows them to practice their social skills. Collaborative play helps children learn to see things from another’s perspective while beginning to understand how to sustain friendships. (Poole, Miller, & Booth Church, n.d.)
Nearly all art forms are naturally collaborative. Singing a song together, acting out group scenes, or painting a large mural all qualify as collaborative activities. Each person is responsible for his or her part in the process and how they perform his or her part affects the whole. The process of creating art together also allows children to experiment with negotiation and compromise as they work together to generate ideas and solutions.
Which art form and how to use it to strengthen collaboration
Visual arts
Complete a group mural
Have each child create a building that is added to a large sheet of paper or to a table of sculptures to build a city
Dance
Build a machine; each child can create their own movement and sound but it must somehow link to others movements
Music
Give each child a rhythm instrument to play their part in a group song working to stay within the given tempo (switch instruments periodically)
Theater
Provide a specific scene to be enacted in the kitchen or other dramatic play area, have students switch roles occasionally
How does art strengthen communication?
Depending upon the severity of the adversity, communication may be affected anywhere along the range of simply being unable to verbalize information about the traumatic event to significantly impairing the language centers of the brain and causing developmental delays. (Atchison, 2007) Offering children a variety of ways to communicate that are not verbal goes a long way in supporting post traumatic growth and recovery.
The arts offer opportunities to express oneself without using verbal communication. Not only does this assist in building the language center of the brain, this provides opportunities for children to better understand the non-verbal communication of others as well. Simply listening to or singing along with music builds communication skills as rhythm and beat share the same neural pathways as speech and verbal communication. (Integrated Learning Strategies, 2016)
Which art form and how to use it to strengthen communication
Visual arts
Have students draw or paint images that correlate to feelings or sounds to explore associations between words and feelings
Ask students to share a story about their drawing or painting
Dance
Use a dance game that requires active listening such as freeze dance to encourage body/mind communication connections
Music
Engage children in rhyming songs or singing word games
Theater
Act out or create plays to help develop vocabulary and story sequencing
How does art strengthen creative problem solving?
It is very easy to respond to the emotional reaction of a child when something does not go their way rather than provide them with the opportunity to solve the issue at hand. In doing so, children may be missing opportunities to learn to solve problems for themselves. Through the arts, children can experiment with solving problems; discovering at times that there exists multiple solutions to the same problem.
Art making is very nearly the definition of creative problem solving. How do you transform a ball of clay into a mug? How do you string together notes to express joy? Working through the creative process demands that decisions be made and solutions reached. The act of creation can teach children how to “manage frustration, uncertainty and ambiguity with innovative ideas and solutions” (Oddleifson Robertson, 2012).
Which art form and how to use it to strengthen creative problem solving
Visual arts
Invite children to create open ended art projects that provide opportunities to make choices
Dance
Ask students to move from one side of the room to the other without walking on two feet, using one hand and one foot, staying as low to the ground as possible, or any other directive
Music
Invite children to express an emotion through a drum or other instrument. How might angry sound different than happy? How does joyful differ from sad?
Theater
Ask children to develop the story of what comes after the end of a story they have just been read. Can they act it out?
How does art strengthen critical thinking skills?
Critical thinking involves examining and evaluating information to anticipate problems or predict outcomes. In early childhood, critical thinking may help children to ask or answer important questions such as “who is a safe person I can go to?” or “what can I do to feel calmer?” during a traumatic event. The arts make space for asking questions and predicting. At times, the arts can ask its audience to “fill in the blanks” or identify information that may not be obvious in the work. Other times, the arts ask “what will I get when I put these things together?” and i”s that what I want to have happened?”
Often, creating art can feel like solving a math equation, but unlike math, there is no one answer. Rather, the answer is determined by choice and experience of the creator. And so the arts push children towards higher level thinking, exercising their capacity to view situations from a more well-rounded viewpoint. Children who think critically are more likely to able to self-sooth and make safe choices for themselves.
Which art form and how to use it to strengthen critical thinking skills
Visual arts
Ask students to share the story of what they think is happening in a piece of art
Dance
Give students a sequence of movements. Ask them to adapt the movements to reflect a specific change (ie. How might you complete this dance if you were dancing underwater?)
Music
Have students draw a picture while listening to a piece of music - what is happening during the music?
Theater
Play “You Can’t Take Me”. Each child pretends to be an object. When it is their turn to be taken away, the child has to explain why that object cannot be taken away. Pretending to be an oven, the child can’t be taken away because the family will not be able to make dinner tonight.
How does art strengthen self-efficacy?
Arts teachers probably hear more than most, “I can’t do this”. Rarely is the child incapable of completing whatever task has been assigned, but rather the child lacks the belief or confidence in his or her ability. In 1992, Bandura stated, “personal accomplishments require not only skills but self-beliefs of efficacy to use them well.” (p. 119) In other words, children must not only develop real life skills, they must believe in their abilities to perform those skills. Children who possess high levels of self-efficacy are more likely to connect their successes with internal efforts rather than external influences. These children are also more likely to persevere through challenging activities or situations. ("Self-efficacy in children," 2012)
Self-efficacy is best developed through the mastery of skills. Yet, the skills learned should present enough of a challenge along the way to help children utilize their creative problem solving and critical thinking skills if not their communication and collaboration skills as well. (Margolis & Mccabe, 2006) The arts offer nearly endless ways in which to gain mastery over the use of voice and body through singing and dance, hand/eye coordination and small motor skills through manipulation of various art mediums, and emotional expression through any and all of the arts.
Which art form and how to use it to strengthen self-efficacy or mastery
Visual arts
Invite children to paint with new materials such as a feather or toy car tires
Dance
Point to and move parts of the body on command.
Music
Listen to and describe the tempo of the music.
Theater
Pass a sound along a line, asking students to inflect a specific emotion into the sound, increasing or decreasing the volume or intensity of the sound as it goes along the line
References Atchison, B. J. (2007). Sensory modulation disorders among children with a history of trauma: A frame of reference for speech-language pathologists. Language, Speech, and Hearing in Schools, 38, 109-116.
Grotberg, E. H. (1996). The international resilience project findings from the research and the effectiveness of interventions.
Integrated Learning Strategies. (2016, March 30). Music therapy: Study says music key for non-verbal children and children with speech and language delays. Retrieved from http://ilslearningcorner.com/2016-03-music-therapy-study-says-music-key-for-non-verbal-children-and-children-with-speech-and-language-delays/
Margolis, H., & Mccabe, P. P. (2006). Improving self-efficacy and motivation. Intervention in School and Clinic, 41(4), 218-227. doi:10.1177/10534512060410040401
Oddleifson Robertson, K. (2012, May 16). The arts and creative problem solving. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/parents/education/music-arts/the-arts-and-creative-problem-solving/
P21. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.p21.org/
Poole, C., Miller, S. A., & Booth Church, E. (n.d.). Ages & stages: How children build friendships. Retrieved from http://www.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3747174
Self-efficacy in children. (2012, October 12). Retrieved from http://www.aboutkidshealth.ca/En/HealthAZ/FamilyandPeerRelations/life-skills/Pages/Self-efficacy-children.aspx
Smith, S. L. (2001). The power of the arts. Baltimore, MD: Paul H Brookes Publishing.
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