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COVID Pedagogies: Tools, Content & Strategies

Jeanie Lui

Decorative image with text: Symbols Express What Words Cannot... Imagining Pleasant thoughts help us mentally to escape from stressful life. Pandemic is a trauma, our brain chooses negative thoughts over the positive. Expressive art helps healing of post-pandemic trauma. Symbol is a token, an object broken into twain. Art expression is amazingly helpful for special needs kids in improving self-esteem and self-awareness. 1 in 66 children and teens diagnosed with the autism spectrum disorder. Funding and therapy offered by the Federal is insufficient.

Title: Symbols Express what Words Cannot…

Artist: Jeanie Lui

 

Statement: 

Symbols help us to interpret thoughts, objects or ideas. When we focus on daily reality; fun or fantasy is gradually neglected. In the process of expressive art therapy, the therapist leads us to create patterns of joyful thoughts and perceptions. It is an escape and outlet for a stressful life. ¬The COVID-19 pandemic is not a norm, it is a trauma. As such, the human brain tends to repeat negative thoughts over the positive. Expressive art can help in the healing of post-pandemic trauma and is especially helpful for special needs kids. One in sixty-six Canadian children and youth have been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). ¬The Ontario government has delayed the launch of a new autism program because of the pandemic. The virtual workshop I’m proposing will target kids with ASD ages six to eight. “If you have a pair of wings” is an interactive narrative where kids will use craft kits to make their own fabric wings. This kind of making and play triggers right brain activity with sensory and motor stimuli. It allows participants imagine, reveal, and work through hidden or underlying thoughts.