The visual arts can be employed as a counseling vehicle for gifted, creative, and talented students. Color, image proportion, subject matter, and texture in student art facilitate assessment and guidance. Craft, drawing, painting, photography, printing, design, and sculpture activities which could help in this process are briefly described. (CB)

This document is used in a collaborative project that engages children and adolescents in alcohol, tobacco, and drug prevention activities through the arts. The project offers an innovative teaching resource that uses the universal language of the arts for drug prevention. By creating murals with drug prevention themes, elementary and secondary…

This article presents information on the new career alternative of art therapy: a definition of the field, types of training necessary, registration as an art therapist, and the job market. It is part of a theme issue on art therapy. (SJL)

Describes the work of Viktor Lowenfeld in developing creative art experiences for the handicapped, particularly using sculpture with the blind. The bulk of the article consists of excerpts from Lowenfeld's own writings, including a case study of his work with a deaf blind child. (SJL)

Questions whether the American Art Therapy Association (AATA) has given adequate attention to the potential long-term and damaging effects on a child by publicly exhibiting their art produced in therapy. Ethics, confidentiality, authenticity, and censorship of client art are examined. Suggests that AATA should adopt guidelines to protect the…

Recent research has shown that boys from father-absent homes exhibit greater feminine role identification, delinquency, mental disorders, poor academic performance, and poor self-esteem. This article presents case studies that demonstrate crises of masculine identification for adolescent boys whose lives lack either a present father or male…

Examines assumption that art therapists can objectively identify self-images in drawings by troubled adolescents without talking to these youth. Findings suggest that discussion, though preferable, is not required for identifying self-images. Analysis of adolescents' drawings indicates that structured art assessment can be useful in evaluating…

Presents some guidelines for art activities that teachers can use to help their students work through their feelings following a natural disaster. Includes some personal observations of art expressions created after a tornado struck. Explains how art produced by students in response to catastrophe seemed to fall into three major categories:…

Encourages counselors to incorporate poetry into student counseling. Client poems many times serve as a way to uncover student concerns. Reading and writing, particularly in free verse, can often accelerate the counseling process. (RJM)

Describes a one-year project involving the integration of expressive arts therapies into an alternative education program. Therapies such as bibliotherapy, phototherapy, poetry therapy, and studio work form the basis for the curriculum. A case study, involving a "borderline," emotionally disturbed, and artistically gifted student,…

Details the effectiveness of individual art therapy with a 12-year-old white female whose academic performance decreased after her parents divorced. The treatment focused on problem-solving and self-concept as a means of improving school performance. Results indicate a notable increase in both self-concept and academic performance. (RJM)

Discusses a pilot study in which art therapy was integrated into the ninth-grade English classroom (N=50) of an urban high school. Data from three measures (to reduce drop-out rates, decrease school failure, and improve students' attitudes about school, family, and self) indicate that the program was a success. (RJM)

The hypothesis that improving the aesthetic quality of the environment of a functionally dependent person with traumatic brain injury would show a corresponding positive effect in the attitudes and behaviors of the resident's family system was tested. Effects of environmental manipulations on family and patient are assessed and discussed.…

This article discusses the future contribution of art therapy to social science research and proposes that art therapists proactively develop collaborative ties with qualitative researchers from fields such as psychology, social anthropology, and education. Although the application of art as a tool in qualitative research is not new, its potential…

Describes "Snakes in the Grass," a weaving project used with special needs students. Discusses the preliminary skill-building activities used, the process for creating the students' individual snakes, and the preparation and process for how the students wove the snakes. (CMK)