The National Autistic Society has stated that: “In 2024, we're asking everyone to get as colourful as possible with their amazing fundraising”.
A colourful world is part of human experience, it can evoke feelings of joy, peace, sadness, anger and a whole myriad of emotions. Dressing in colourful ways can be an outward expression of these feelings, a way of communicating with the world how we are feeling and even inviting others to feel that way too!
Sometimes colour can be useful to help us understand our own emotions, especially when we don’t understand why we are feeling the way we do or if it is difficult to put those feelings into words. Sometimes these feelings can cause us to feel low or that we aren’t getting the enjoyment from day to day life that we should. Art therapy can be a way to help understand and express these feelings with an art therapist who can help do this in a way that feels safe. Using art and colour helps with expression of deeper feelings, it can help with integrating emotions into something that is tangible that can be viewed by
both art maker and therapist. Art therapy can help people with autism highlight what is important to them about their emotions especially if it is hard to put it into words. The “relational aspect and multisensory nature of art materials
enhances psycho-emotional well-being with ASD”, Durrani (2019). Using art materials helps with thought processing and with the development of dextrous abilities. It allows for focus on individual thought processes and talents but doesn’t require what is traditionally thought of as being ‘good at art’.
World Autism Day is a time to think about colour, perhaps by dressing more colourfully - shaking off the darker winter months and embracing brighter days ahead. This could be a time to think about making some colourful art! Do something using bright colours like a bright colourful sky or draw some colourful lines and let the marks take you all over the paper or make colourful
splashes with watercolour paint. Once you’ve done this you could take some time to look at its qualities, the shapes, the marks and think about feeling colourful or just simply enjoy looking at your artwork.
Further information about art therapy can be found at The British Association of Art Therapists | BAAT
Reference:
Huma Durrani (2019) A Case for Art Therapy as a Treatment for Autism Spectrum Disorder, Art Therapy, 36:2, 103-106, DOI:
10.1080/07421656.2019.1609326