CREATIVE ARTS THERAPY

Creative Arts Therapy is a well-established professional health discipline that uses the arts as the therapeutic stimulus to achieve treatment goals. Creative Arts Therapy is considered as an effective educational and therapeutic tool for both children and adults with various disabilities.

​

In special education at Hayes Day School, the creative arts therapist utilizes music, art, etc. as an educational related service to promote learning and skill acquisition. Creative arts therapy has been shown to help children who are at different levels of communication develop needed skills. We work on the ability to initiate, anticipate, and sustain participation in turn taking, and to maintain attention to and engagement in the interaction. It can be used to motivate movements or structured exercises that are prescribed in physical rehabilitation. Through the use and power of arts, creative arts therapy becomes a positive reinforcement for the students in their active learning. In addition, creative arts therapy provides a distraction from the pain, discomfort, and anxiety often associated with some physical disabilities.

​

Overall, with the different clinical therapeutic methods of creative arts therapy, the creative arts therapist enhances the students’ moods to increase their awareness of self, of others and the environment, reduce destructive behaviors and increase their attention span in order to optimize the student’s ability to learn and interact.