Need materials? Tools? Autism Society of New Orleans Mini Grant application open this month

Parents and teachers, don't miss out on the opportunity to apply for a small grant through the wonderful Autism Society of New Orleans.  

The Autism Society of Greater New Orleans is once again offering its Mini Grant Program for teachers and families. It has been a great success with many families and teachers from all across the Greater New Orleans area receiving grants to help students with Autism in their classrooms and children and adults with Autism in their community.

Qualified families living in and teachers working in Jefferson, Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, and St. Tammany Parishes may submit only one grant application proposal per year. Awards may not exceed $300.00 and may be awarded less than the requested amount.

What's on your therapy wish list?  A clay kit?  A paint set?  An iPad? Visit http://www.asgno.org/mini-grant-program/ and "make the ask"!

The peaceful paintings of a nonverbal 5-year old girl

This article on CNN.com showcases the paintings of 5 year old Iris Halmshaw, a nonverbal autistic child from the UK.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/09/world/the-extraordinary-art-of-autistic-five-year-old-monet/

Therapeutically, the beauty of an art product is relatively unimportant.  If you can release stress by rolling clay into lumpy balls, represent your relationship with your brother in a series of scribbles, or connect with a peer through stick figure drawings, the process has been successful.  Too many people, kids included, have trouble even picking up a pencil because they are self-conscious about the way their art looks.  We would do well to let go of making it look "right" and instead on using art to help us feel right.

That said, beautiful art is unquestionable meaningful.  In this case, Iris' paintings seem to me to evoke the synesthetic world many people with autism describe.  As she is nonverbal, we can only look into these multilayered, richly textured paintings and try to imagine what she is perceiving, feeling and expressing based on how they make us feel.  Consider it an exercise in empathy.