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Boston
Herald
By NANCY KELLEHER
December 15, 1996
Ya'
gotta have art
Music,
painting, song enhance learning at BC Campus School
Ginny Keator offers her guitar to each of the five students as she
sings the "Hello Song" using individual names.
She places the guitar on Saba's lap so she can feel its vibration.
Jake strums the guitar; then playfully fingers the fretboard when
it is passed to the next child in this special-needs class of 8 and
9-year-olds at Boston College's Campus School.
Keator is a music therapist working with The Boston Institute for
Arts Therapy, an organization that uses the creative arts to help
children, teens, families and seniors communicate and solve problems.
The nonprofit agency works with a wide range of people: those with
special needs, children at risk, battered women and even isolated
seniors.
The arts provide a vehicle for eaching children -- even infants --
very quickly.
"Primarily we start out as sensory beings -- all of us,"
said Karen Wise, Clinical Director of the Institute. "Children
and babies learn through their senses before language is even developed.
So it's really a primary mode of learning about the world around us.
When we work on a sensory level, I think we engage kids immediately.
"If you tried singing directions to a small child as opposed
to speaking them, you'd have much greater attention from that child."
Wise said the child probably also whould have an easier time understanding
the information. Because words can be limiting, the arts provide a
wonderful means of communicating, particularly with small children
with a limited vocabulary.
"In fact, crative self-expression can often stimulate language,"
she said. The institute worked with one 4-year-old who never spoke.
But after watching othe children painting and drawing, he eventually
picked up a crayon and began to draw. In time, he answered simple
questions about his artwork, then gave his workds one-word titles.
Within six months, he was speaking with the other children in his
group.
Adults also benefit from arts therapy.
"For someone who is potentially threatened by traditional verbal
theapy, sometimes crative-arts therapy can cut through some of what
makes traditional therapy scary," said Wise. "Sometimes
if you have something on your mind and you can't put words to it,
it might be easier to draw something -- sonething symbolic that describes
how you're feeling -- or to do some sort of creative writing piece
or to listen to a piece of music that represents how you're feeling."
In addtional to providing direct therapy; the Institute offers training
to teachers. "We also do a lot of parent-child work...around
parents supporting, encouraging and nurturing their child's strengths,
skills and creativity," she said.
Keator's work with the BC Campus School children helps them develop
gross motor skills, encourages active participation and creates structure.
The music serves as both a motivator and a reward.
Keator works with speech and physical therapists to learn what each
child can do, then encourages them through the music to use their
voices, to pick up their hands to touch an instrument or perhaps simply
to open their hands.
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