Educational research regularly claims, with lots of evidence, that humans learn from experience. However, experience is composed of outer and inner sensations. Thus, if humans learn from experience, we would expect that educational research would be replete with work on sensation. Yet sensation in the wild, outside laboratory studies, plays no…

Art therapy can be particularly successful in addressing the specific needs of individuals struggling with anorexia nervosa (AN) through the use of the creative process. This article provides an understanding of the effect of malnourishment on the brain for individuals with AN and discusses how their unique needs can be met through the application…

This article describes the use of collaborative fabric collage based on a neurodevelopmental adaptation for an adult who was being treated for trauma. The case demonstrates the value of thinking about neurodevelopmental factors when creating art therapy interventions. A biologically respectful treatment that offers relational, relevant,…

Obesity has become a true pandemic. In the United States, over two thirds of adults are obese or overweight. The prevalence of obesity has doubled since 1980. The increase in the prevalence of obese and overweight individuals has happened too rapidly for it to be due to an alteration in the genome. The gastrointestinal, sensory (taste and…

This article features the National Institute of Trauma and Loss in Children (TLC), a program that has demonstrated via field testing, exploratory research, time series studies, and evidence-based research studies that its Structured Sensory Intervention for Traumatized Children, Adolescents, and Parents (SITCAP[R]) produces statistically…

The following paper addresses the responses that the learner has to changes in the learning environment that enhance instruction. While theorists have supported the notion that instruction embedded in sensory-filled, brain-based and hands-on activities, classrooms remain unchanged in many, if not most interactions. What can we do to wake up…

Sensory processing refers to the way the brain takes incoming sensory messages, converts them into meaningful messages, then makes a response. If the responses are disorganized or inappropriate given the sensory input, sensory processing disorder (SPD) may co-exist with autism. If a child has an occasional atypical response to sensation, he or she…

Reviews recent brain research in education. Provides five implications for teaching in art: (1) use emotion; (2) use different sense; (3) promote student self-direction; (4) enable social learning; and (5) encourage pattern finding. Describes two sample art units demonstrating how the five implications and art instruction can be integrated. (CMK)