For parents of autistic children, it can be a challenge to find creative and social activities for their kids.
Three Northeast Ohio moms and their daughters found a match with the Beck Center for the Arts’ creative arts therapies in Lakewood.
One of the girls is 15-year-old Abby Curtis of Rocky River, diagnosed with autism at age 3. Abby’s mom, Mary Kay, had been seeking a place for her daughter to be creative and feel welcome.
“[Abby] doesn't really want to participate in anything because she can't talk with the other kids,” Mary Kay Curtis said. “She can't have a conversation. So, it's hard to get them to engage, especially her.”
Fellow parent Jennifer Profant of Cleveland’s West Park neighborhood has a similar situation with her 13-year-old daughter, Natalie.
“Her verbal is a little slow but she's getting it, she's very curious,” Profant said, “She loves being social.”
Because Natalie is an only child, Profant says the class is a great place for her to socialize with other kids her age.
The third parent of the group is Westlake’s Mia Assad. Her 14-year-old daughter, Sarah, prefers to wear noise-canceling headphones in public, including while making music in her art therapy class at the Beck Center.
“It's nice when we kind of have it set up this way so she can meet people and feel like she belongs somewhere,” Assad said.
All three girls are participating in the weekly adapted arts sampler class that lets the students set the direction.
Guide: Northeast Ohio venues with adapted arts programs for people with autism
The Beck Center’s Vice President for Education Ed Gallagher said the adapted arts classes tailor to the students’ personal interests.
“We, as the therapists … design our arts experiences to meet individuals where they are and take them from there,” Gallagher said.
Each class is 30 minutes, which is a good length of time for the girls to focus on the day’s task.
Tracy Ammon, the Beck Center’s associate director of creative arts therapies, said the classes offer students a variety of sensory experiences.
“Some children are very tactile. They respond to that. So visual art is great for them, because they can really get their hands dirty,” Ammon said. “Other children are more aurally stimulated, so music really speaks to them.”
For one recent class, the girls made owls out of construction paper, colored cotton balls and glue.
Profant said she’s proud of her daughter’s progress in the art class.
“When she first started doing art she just worked with one color, one color for everything. It was the color red,” Profant said. “Now she has every single color of the rainbow.”
Beyond the artworks they bring home or the songs they learn, there are other benefits.
Assad said she saw a difference in her daughter’s demeanor.
“You could just tell by her attitude, the way she walks in independently,” Assad said. “She just follows directions really well, which sometimes she does, and sometimes she doesn't, but here she does.”
Curtis noticed a similar response from her daughter.
“She wants to be home. That's her preference, right, is to not be around other people,” Curtis said. “But now we say, ‘It's art class time.’ She jumps right up, gets her coat on, happy to go, fine on the way here, excited when she gets home to show me what she made … and thrilled when we put the artwork up on the wall.”
