Hello! I hope you liked my post on Art and Perspective! I love Art! So I am here again to give you 5 ideas on art projects for kids with sensory issues!

Art is an expression of creative skill and imagination and can take many forms. Participating in art projects often opens the door for communication that may otherwise be difficult for kids with learning difficulties to express.

For children with sensory processing challenges, finding the right art projects to take on can be a challenge because they don’t enjoy being messy or they don’t enjoy touching the mediums that are squishy, wet, or are made up of smaller parts, such as sand or rice. Some kids may require very specialized teaching methods in order to combat these sensory issues.

If you want to engage your child in art projects, it’s best to start with non-messy experiences for your child and build up to bigger projects. Go slowly and encourage your child to try new things, even if it’s just for a very short time. Here are some projects and activities to get you started!

1. Plastic Bag Painting

This is a great project to start with for kids with sensory issues as it doesn’t require the child to actually touch the paint and get messy, but it still gives them the opportunity to move and squish the paint around in the bag. This gives a more mild sensory experience. Simply squirt a small amount of paint into a Ziploc plastic bag (the freezer types are stronger), use multiple colors for mixing, close the top and tape to the table or the window and have your child “paint” inside the bag. Observe what happens to the paint and discuss the mixing of colors and what colors make up other colors.

 

2. Alphabet Art

Early years are the best years to learn all about the alphabets! Creative art techniques can help you teach the kids their ABC’s in a fun, interactive way!  Listed below some different suggestions for each letter of the alphabet. You can pick anyone for each of the given letters. Some people like painting and mess more than others so you can choose what you like.

Aa – apple prints, fingerprint ants
Bb – bubble prints, block prints, blue, band-aids, beans
Cc – cotton prints, car tracks, carrot prints, corn
Dd – dot design (Dot Art Painters), diamonds
Ee – elbow painting, egg shapes, wiggly eyes
Ff – finger painting, draw faces or fish, feathers, flowers
Gg – glitter glue
Hh – hand prints, hearts, hay
Ii – ice cube painting, ink (rubber stamps with a variety of inks)
Jj – junk prints, jewels, jazzy J’s (decorate with lots of stuff)
Kk – kite shapes (draw or precut), keys (rubbings),
Ll – letter collage (rubber stamps or alphabet punches), ladybugs
Mm – marble painting, mosaic, fingerprint mice
Nn – nature prints, newspaper numbers, nickel rubbings
Oo – O’s (toilet paper tubes), orange (the fruit) prints
Pp – painted picture, purple potato prints. penny rubbings
Qq – quarter rubbings, q-tip painting, quilt (squares of paper)
Rr – rubbings, rainbows, ribbon rectangles, red objects
Ss – sponge paint, stamp designs (rubber stamps), sand, stickers
Tt – torn paper collage, toothpick triangles, tea
Uu – upside-down picture, up arrows
Vv – vegetable prints, valentines
Ww – watercolor, waves, wallpaper
Xx – x-ray (using q-tips)
Yy – yarn design, yellow yo-yo’s
Zz – zigzags, zipper rubbing

Photo Credits : crystalandcomp.com  &  kidscount1234.com

3. Magical Clay

Clay can be found at any craft store. It provides a non-messy, creative and colourful art experience for children. It is light-weight and easy to manipulate for children of all ages and it dries in about 24 hours for those little ones who can’t wait to play with their creations. Children adore rolling, squeezing, twirling and pulling easy-to-sculpt clay into fun and imaginative craft projects.

 

4. Milk & Food Coloring

Using household materials like milk, food coloring and dish soap, you can create an awesome piece of art and a beautiful explosion of colors!

This unforgettable hands-on learning experience is fun and easy— Pour enough milk in the dinner plate to completely cover the bottom to the depth and allow it to settle for some time. Add one drop of each of the four colors of food coloring—red, yellow, green, and blue—to the milk keeping  the drops close together in the center of the plate of milk. Take a q-tip and dip one end in dish detergent and lightly touch it to the milk hold it there for 10 to 15 seconds. Look at that burst of colours! Cool art project for kids and adults!

 

5. Painting with tools

Finger painting may be a difficult task for children with sensory issues, but creating an experience where the child would not have to touch the paint is a step between no painting and finger painting.Kids can paint with unusual objects, such as a forks, fly swatter, spoons, rolling a car or marbles in a tray of paper with paint squirted on top or using string. Let your imagination go wild; just make sure whatever you paint with is washable.

                                  

Conclusion

We should encourage children to try new things. For a start, perhaps just having them touch it, then put it away for another day. Give your child time to be comfortable with different substances and textures, and it may take repeated exposure to get them to enjoy the experience. Praise them for their efforts and make the experience fun for them and for you as a family!

 

References:

Erin McNeill  – www.autismempowerment.org/10-art-projects-for-kids-with-sensory-issues/

S. Sloane – kidscount1234.com/alphabetartbook

Crystal V Tassel – http://crystalandcomp.com/

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