Children in school begin a process of personal autonomy that is crucial for the development of social skills. In this process, they experience multiple emotions that can lead to confusion and tension when establishing social ties, harming the way in which children relate to their environment.
The stimulation and development of creativity through art therapy and music therapy naturally benefits the expression of emotions , helping children to simplify and resolve internal conflicts through art, music, play and imagination.
Artistic and musical processes in the classroom create a bond between students and teachers, facilitating social relationships, the reaffirmation of individuality and acceptance of individual differences in a safe environment such as the play space.
Art therapy and music therapy applied in the school setting
Based on my experience as a Special Education, Primary and Educational Support teacher working with children with and without special educational needs in the classroom, several questions arise when creating a methodology that responds to the needs of all students and in which social relationships between them are encouraged, creating a space for real diversity.
Creativity is a means that can help children express the emotions that appear at different stages of their lives, as well as in their daily lives, establishing a channel of communication and expression that facilitates the processes of autonomy, self-affirmation and the expression of internal conflicts, helping to understand and accept individual differences and fostering social relationships .
Likewise, when we intend to introduce this type of techniques in the classroom, it is important to establish a frame of reference in which the benefits of art therapy, music therapy and creativity in the classroom are presented in order to subsequently propose a specific intervention program based on artistic techniques.
From a theoretical framework , it could be said that the use of Art Therapy or Music Therapy within schools is not common, however, these disciplines have been introduced into public education in countries such as Australia, Canada, the United States, Holland, Israel and the United Kingdom in a regulated manner.
School, as we know it today, requires a radical change in which children can create their own learning and not be subjected to a standardized education in which the failures of the school are evident, reflected in the lack of adaptation to individual differences.
Children constantly adopt behaviours from the adult world such as communication problems, feelings of inferiority or stress, which are major indicators of social maladjustment. In this sense, Art Therapy and Music Therapy applied in the school setting is a valuable tool for the development of creativity and the expression of emotions, facilitating the child's adaptation to his/her environment in a healthy way and helping to accept individual differences.
art therapy in early childhood education
Expression of emotions
There are several authors who defend art therapy and music therapy in schools as facilitators of emotional expression . Moriya (2000) comments that the ability to symbolize, which grows with artistic practice, is essential for cognitive processes and allows for the sublimation and release of anxieties.
Allowing difficult-to-put-into-words emotions to be expressed by giving them form, through art, is one of the most outstanding peculiarities of art therapy, and where we find its greatest therapeutic potential. Case & Dalley (1987) “Art provides relief, enjoyment, play, catharsis, splashing and messing with materials, aspects often essential for children whose emotional development has been severely affected.”
These benefits offered by art and music therapies are essential during the school stage, allowing teachers to work on the emotions that arise in students in a way that is appropriate for their age, thus avoiding contradictions and facilitating the acceptance of individual differences and adaptation to the environment.
Taking into account the contextual framework , numerous art therapy and music therapy kuwait whatsapp numbers programmes have also been carried out in Spanish educational centres. However, it is worth mentioning that the development of art therapy and music therapy in schools in our country is much less widespread compared to other European or American countries.
Molina (2011) presents an art therapy program aimed at a group of students, of which 5 were boys and 3 girls, aged between 7 and 12 years old, who lived in the same classroom in a rural school located in Segovia. Among the objectives that were proposed was the use of artistic and musical techniques for self-knowledge and development, as well as facilitating the expression of emotions that would be difficult to express in any other way.
The work carried out was able to start a movement among the students towards more realistic, more conscious and therefore more flexible positions with the social environment, thanks to which a certain openness towards the acceptance of the other and their differences was possible.
However, despite the clear benefits of Art Therapy and Music Therapy in schools, until 2009 we have not found work in our country that integrates curriculum and artistic and musical therapy as ways of working on the areas (Granados, 2009), although there are applications in the school environment (Callejón and Granados, 2005).
In this sense, an artistic and musical therapy program was carried out in 2004 in a center in Seville located in a marginal area, with pre-delinquent adolescents, at high social risk, and with a high level of school absenteeism, obtaining results that improved their empathy and sociability. The program was incorporated into the school curriculum for an entire course, and took advantage of an hour and a half of the Language subject and one of the Art subject per week (Callejón and Granados, 2005; Granados, 2009).
As these data show us, it is important as teachers to be aware that Art Therapy and Music Therapy are increasingly strong therapeutic tools to be used in the educational field , since they facilitate the expression of emotions and help in the processes of change in children.
Access to online course without access requirements on early stimulation
Bibliographic references
CHINCHILLA ALLEY, MD and GRANADOS CONEJO, IM (2005)
Introduction to Art Therapy and its applications in the educational field. Seville: Fere- Ceca. Andalusia.
CASE C. & DALLEY, T. eds., (1987) Images of Art Therapy. New developments in theory and practice. Tavistock, London. UK
DALLEY Tessa. (1987) Art as Therapy, 14pp. Herder. Barcelona.
GRANADOS CONEJO, I.M. (2009) Effectiveness of the implementation of an art therapy program in a group of adolescents in the “Las Tres Mil Viviendas” neighborhood of Seville. Unpublished doctoral thesis. Department of Personality, Psychological Assessment and Treatment. University of Seville. Seville.
MOLINA F. (2011) “Autumn, winter and spring: three terms for an inclusion experience with group art therapy in a rural school”. In Art Therapy: Roles of art therapy and artistic education for social inclusion. Vol.: 6. Page 51-69. UCM Publications Services. Madrid
MORIYA, D. (2000) Art Therapy in Schools: Effective Integration of Art Therapy in Schools. Ramat HaSharon. Israel.
PIAGET, J. (2002). Child psychology. Lecturalia. Madrid.23