I teach autistic teenagers - looking for advice

(NB I still have AS assessment hurdle but....)

I am very creative but can't draw etc

I absolutely hated art at school with the whole self-expression nightmare. At some point I was exposed to some Mondrian works and these fit in so well with a creative but still mechanising/schematizing brain. I was asked to find some things around my home where there were patterns and this really opened up a 'seam' for me. I think I did that homework 3 times... on a parquet floor pattern, on some square stonework on the fireplace...etc

I didn't get that 'fine art' was not the whole thing and my very abstract appreciation was just as valid as watercolour chocolate box puke-fests (if you'll forgive my phraseology) - and also there was a difference between trying to be precocious and totally blunt.

I have found thats the real hard part with both me and my children the start of the independent work ,alot of guidance maybe small practice seasons to get into this style of working .

Thanks for everyones help. 

I work in a specialist autism base so the the environment is built and set up with autistic needs at the forefront.  

I have chosen to do art, craft and design so that we can cover everything from fine art, sculpture, photography, printing, digital, advertising, graphic design - so very broad I personally would never choose the fine art pathway. 

I am going to give it a go with trying to avoid the actually term of lets research this. 

I currently teach ks3 and conduct my classes with a lot of clear instruction, direction and support. But also with a lot of discussion, games involved so different from normal art classes. I also try to move away from the commonly used themes and artists, which is often over done and over choices in materials to suit each individuals sensory needs. 

It is just this research element that is challenging as I say as it is one of the key areas for their GCSE and unfortunately I have to take a step back so that they can achieve it as independent work is one of the requirements.  I will do my best with the research part and try different approaches, previous teachers have tried doing it with the student or showing them videos etc connected to their interests, breaking it down into smaller tasks without any luck so I can only hope I can figure it out.

HettieLleshi,

When autistic people shut down or close off it’s often because of something in or about the environment. If no one’s done so yet it will be worth observing the environment for distractions, like if any are over or under sensitive they may be too many stimulants in the environment overstimulating them. An ASD Specialist on a documentary I watched says that the more overwhelmed and overstimulated they are the more they try to control, at home they’re in control of everything. 

One of the differences in an autistic mind is it doesn’t filter out information so soon, once they’ve processed so much information without it filtering out they can feel overloaded and exhausted. I’ve listened to an employer who only hires autistic people, he shared that while doing IT testing there was an autistic person who could not forget a specific set of numbers and it exhausted him that at break time he always took a nap. Those doing the IT testing were looking for a certain fault, after asking the autistic one why he kept taking naps he shared that set of numbers. They came to find that the solution to the fault was in that specific set of numbers, they might be something in the research they’re holding onto and can’t stop thinking about it.

If the parents know of anything else they will only do in certain environments at certain times take note and see if there’s any common factors.

It’s found that autistic people, especially females, have an enormous imagination. One girl I’ve listened to said I quote; “Sometimes my imagination feels more real than reality.” end quote.

tootbrush painting --- make crude Jackson Pollocks  ----- put paint on bristles then use u finger to run along the bristles to throw the paint on to the paper then next colour

modelling with wire followed by Plasticine / clays

collage always works well. easy to do and very expressive

I think as Peter says below, bringing out the finer points of structure, detail and form can be really engaging for us. With the art history and art analysis programs, it was great hearing about how pictures are composed, the different thoughts going on in the artist's head.

Also, it's great to know what mistakes or changes in mind are made by the 'great artists'. We can be quite perfectionist sometimes, so hearing that an artist will change their mind after an initial working can be quite liberating.

Composition, light and dark, choice of colour/vibrancy and explaining seemingly 'unusual choices' (the rose lying on the floor represents etc). All these little analytical aspects help set off a lot of interest in some of us.

When I was a child I used to do art at home but I got incredibly frustrated that my hand and eye could never recreate what I imagined in my head precisely. The dimensions and proportions were always off. So we adapted. Started doing art with geometry implements to graph out lines and perspectives etc. Swapped runny watercolours for more opaque and solid pigments. Still all I wanted to draw was sci-fi and later in my teens pictures of pretty girls. Mostly gave up on physical media when I got a computer. Worked with computer graphics programs when ever I got a hankering to do art.

If you can go digital in your art lessons consider it. If not consider more pencil work / acrylics etc. And let them pick their own subjects.  Don't give them a bowl of fruit to draw. let them use tools to help them get the proportions / perspective they want, maybe let them trace figures as a reference then have them trace their tracing using the outlines as guides instead of just copying them. As for research the autistic tendency to research is just naturally depth first. If an autistic person is interested in something they'll research it, get interested in some narrow detail of it and research that in more depth, then some detail with the detail untill they're looking at things that are pretty technical, esoteric and obscure. That's the natural flow of how the autistic mind works, trying to get them to research a wide range of different things but in not much detail is working against their natural inclinations.

PS. think you could improvise a camera obscura? I bet that would get them interested.

Thank you for your insight. 

Interestingly I have found our boys are more imaginative which is interesting. 

The researching element has been a bit of a struggle, most students whilst not too enthused will get on with it and complete is - as it is a key part of the course. we have one particular student who when at home will spend hours looking at things on the internet, searching forums etc but in the school environment completely shuts down when it relates to their work. I am wondering whether it is a home/school thing in which they don't want to overlap? But unfortunately it is a necessary part of more than one of their chosen GCSEs. 

I did art at GCSE.

Looking back, I wish I'd 'got' the art history aspect of it better.

I ended up with a B. Lovely drawings. Struggled with paint a bit (the state schools paint was pretty rubbish at the time, to be fair to myself).

In my 20s, I got into the art history side of things through Tim Marlow's 'Great Artists' program on Channel 5.

If I could have gone back to my GCSEs and injected my new-found interest in art history back into GCSE, I would have done.

At GCSE, the idea of art history wasn't really developed. A teacher sadly didn't have the same visual wonderment that a well-produced TV program could give. So, I guess that is why I fell into a love art history through a great TV program series rather than a teacher having to talk it through (without visual aids) within about 5-10 mins.

That's a bit jumbled of an answer but maybe gives something else to latch onto ?

Oh, and I consider myself bigender, if that helps at all. I aced maths and science all through school - but also liked to indulge myself in other subjects like art and history.

Hi,

I'm Autistic myself and have studied Autism for over 20 years, I may be able to help.

Researching - Interested in Art is not the same as researching Art, I'm a fine artist but I have no interest in researching Art and Artists. That's possibly why. If they find researching difficult that's another possibility.

Imagination - I strongly assume it's females who have bigger imaginations. That's one of the differences between Autistic males and females, females have enormous imaginations compared to males, some even say their imagination feels more real than reality itself. 

If I find more I'll let you know.