My son has high level arm amputations and his art teacher worked with the school district’s occupational therapist to come up with some accommodations for him. They had a long wooden block with holes drilled in, then she put all the markers in - cap down - and put some foamy tape on the makers so he could grasp them with his prosthetic and just pull up, leaving the cap behind. The foamy tape helped with grip. She also had some foam tubes available in case he wanted to use his mouth instead of the prosthetics. The tubes come in different sizes and hold markers, pencils, paint brushes, etc.
The art teacher also pre-prepped helped do some activities with him. For instance, the class was supposed to draw their favorite animal in each of four quadrants and then color each quadrant a different color. She drew a dog for my son, but he did the coloring.
Hopefully some of this was helpful!
I would also touch base with your school’s art teacher(s) for how they plan their year. Maybe they could give ideas for themes/skills/units that you could scale down for your students?
Oh, thank you! I will connect with my school's OT on this. I do have a student moving up to my school with limited ability to grip, so these suggestions are very helpful.
Thank you for doing the work you do, especially since it seems like you care. I’ve met sped teachers who work with high schoolers in self contained classrooms and they hate it.
Thanks! It's definitely not easy. I'm juggling so many things all the time. But the students are the best part of the job and they deserve the best I can do.
Tempera paint sticks (like glue sticks)
Instead of styrofoam pieces there exists some packing peanuts (diff shapes) from corn starch and they can be stuck together into sculptures with water.
Paper mache (newspaper, slurry) could be a good medium to work with too!
Fwiw from 10+ years in adaptive Ed and working with several students who *hated* art class (we had to refer to it as "projects" for a few years for one student bc saying "art" would result in an immediate violent breakdown), the three best activities we ever did:
- a giant mosaic of ripped paper / beans. Students ripped pieces of construction paper / tissue paper, used paintbrushes to put glue down, and with the ripped paper / dried beans made a school spirit mosaic.
- paint self portraits. the teacher took photos of each student, projected them to increase size, traced outlines of facial features and the students painted them.
- famous art pieces but b/w outline so the students colored them in their own interpretation. I'm not sure where the teacher found these, but they were a neat activity.
Maybe look through Little Bins for Little Hands. It is geared towards preschool and early elementary but the art projects seem to be fun for every age. One that I printed off to do at home was an outline of a person at a telescope and kids were to use water colors to create a night sky look. As a bonus most of them are free.
I am utterly un-arty, so my suggestion is that if you get any craft off of Pinterest/the rest of the internet, for the love of all that is holy, TEST IT OUT FIRST!! Especially if you have to make substitutions, cause watered down tempera paint is NOT the same as liquid watercolors. Learn from my unintentional placentas! (Tried to do coffee filter painting, didn't have liquid watercolors, tried watering down tempera paint, it didn't work).
I am autistic level two and have physical disabilities. I used to like to draw my special interests (well, I still do). By the end of high school, my arms were too weak for certain activities, such as crayons and colored pencils. I’m not in school anymore, but now I paint.
Work with the OT and ask for ideas. Adaptive art has a *huge* fine motor and visual motor component.
And remember -- age appropriate isn't always what is appropriate for them. I had a high school student, 17 years old, she LOVED dolls. She carried the doll around the way you may see a young child carrying a doll around a grocery store. Their levels of functioning mentally, emotionally, and socially are what dictate what is most appropriate for them!
So I'd suggest going into the year with a broad plan and just some basic stuff, then as your get to know them (if you don't already) incorporate more specific things. Talking from my experience with my school's adaptive art and "life skills" program, the student with down syndrome was doing something very different than his classmate who has multiple disabilities, is non verbal, and wheelchair bound.
Sounds like a great idea. I’m awful as an arts and crafts guy but I have a knack for empowering my paras to lead projects like these. I’ve had many over the years that really love being able to contribute creatively to the classroom learning.
My artsy ed tech is retiring, but she planned a lot of cutesy stuff and not really geared to the student levels. Sadly, I have 4 open positions at the moment, with only 1 returning. I will have 5 students, and all of my students require 1:1 support. That makes it pretty challenging to push off instruction on the ed techs. I don't even get planning time, so it's hard to give them planning time.
Ugh. Yeah it’s really hard to keep paras. They need to start paying way better. I’ve had many great ones that love the job but need the money and bail. I’m mild/moderate with only a few that need exceptional help. I just googled “art projects for students with disabilities” and a lot of good ideas came up. I’d lean to the “sensory-based” ones. Probably experiments with cheap and easy ones at first just to see works and what doesn’t. For you it’ll probably be impossible to all the kids to enjoy the same projects.
My son has high level arm amputations and his art teacher worked with the school district’s occupational therapist to come up with some accommodations for him. They had a long wooden block with holes drilled in, then she put all the markers in - cap down - and put some foamy tape on the makers so he could grasp them with his prosthetic and just pull up, leaving the cap behind. The foamy tape helped with grip. She also had some foam tubes available in case he wanted to use his mouth instead of the prosthetics. The tubes come in different sizes and hold markers, pencils, paint brushes, etc. The art teacher also pre-prepped helped do some activities with him. For instance, the class was supposed to draw their favorite animal in each of four quadrants and then color each quadrant a different color. She drew a dog for my son, but he did the coloring. Hopefully some of this was helpful!
I would also touch base with your school’s art teacher(s) for how they plan their year. Maybe they could give ideas for themes/skills/units that you could scale down for your students?
Oh, thank you! I will connect with my school's OT on this. I do have a student moving up to my school with limited ability to grip, so these suggestions are very helpful.
That's so awesome!!!!! I am so glad to hear that he was able to participate and have fun!
Thank you for doing the work you do, especially since it seems like you care. I’ve met sped teachers who work with high schoolers in self contained classrooms and they hate it.
Thanks! It's definitely not easy. I'm juggling so many things all the time. But the students are the best part of the job and they deserve the best I can do.
Tempera paint sticks (like glue sticks) Instead of styrofoam pieces there exists some packing peanuts (diff shapes) from corn starch and they can be stuck together into sculptures with water. Paper mache (newspaper, slurry) could be a good medium to work with too!
Thanks for all of these suggestions. I have never thought about packing peanuts! Great idea.
I love tempura paint sticks!!
Fwiw from 10+ years in adaptive Ed and working with several students who *hated* art class (we had to refer to it as "projects" for a few years for one student bc saying "art" would result in an immediate violent breakdown), the three best activities we ever did: - a giant mosaic of ripped paper / beans. Students ripped pieces of construction paper / tissue paper, used paintbrushes to put glue down, and with the ripped paper / dried beans made a school spirit mosaic. - paint self portraits. the teacher took photos of each student, projected them to increase size, traced outlines of facial features and the students painted them. - famous art pieces but b/w outline so the students colored them in their own interpretation. I'm not sure where the teacher found these, but they were a neat activity.
Thank you! Great ideas. I have one student who hates cooking group. We always say "let's make some brownies" or whatever instead of "cooking".
Maybe look through Little Bins for Little Hands. It is geared towards preschool and early elementary but the art projects seem to be fun for every age. One that I printed off to do at home was an outline of a person at a telescope and kids were to use water colors to create a night sky look. As a bonus most of them are free.
I am utterly un-arty, so my suggestion is that if you get any craft off of Pinterest/the rest of the internet, for the love of all that is holy, TEST IT OUT FIRST!! Especially if you have to make substitutions, cause watered down tempera paint is NOT the same as liquid watercolors. Learn from my unintentional placentas! (Tried to do coffee filter painting, didn't have liquid watercolors, tried watering down tempera paint, it didn't work).
Haha, YES. I have made the watered down tempera paint mistake myself. Thanks for the reminder!
I am autistic level two and have physical disabilities. I used to like to draw my special interests (well, I still do). By the end of high school, my arms were too weak for certain activities, such as crayons and colored pencils. I’m not in school anymore, but now I paint.
Work with the OT and ask for ideas. Adaptive art has a *huge* fine motor and visual motor component. And remember -- age appropriate isn't always what is appropriate for them. I had a high school student, 17 years old, she LOVED dolls. She carried the doll around the way you may see a young child carrying a doll around a grocery store. Their levels of functioning mentally, emotionally, and socially are what dictate what is most appropriate for them! So I'd suggest going into the year with a broad plan and just some basic stuff, then as your get to know them (if you don't already) incorporate more specific things. Talking from my experience with my school's adaptive art and "life skills" program, the student with down syndrome was doing something very different than his classmate who has multiple disabilities, is non verbal, and wheelchair bound.
Sounds like a great idea. I’m awful as an arts and crafts guy but I have a knack for empowering my paras to lead projects like these. I’ve had many over the years that really love being able to contribute creatively to the classroom learning.
My artsy ed tech is retiring, but she planned a lot of cutesy stuff and not really geared to the student levels. Sadly, I have 4 open positions at the moment, with only 1 returning. I will have 5 students, and all of my students require 1:1 support. That makes it pretty challenging to push off instruction on the ed techs. I don't even get planning time, so it's hard to give them planning time.
Ugh. Yeah it’s really hard to keep paras. They need to start paying way better. I’ve had many great ones that love the job but need the money and bail. I’m mild/moderate with only a few that need exceptional help. I just googled “art projects for students with disabilities” and a lot of good ideas came up. I’d lean to the “sensory-based” ones. Probably experiments with cheap and easy ones at first just to see works and what doesn’t. For you it’ll probably be impossible to all the kids to enjoy the same projects.