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  1. Art-Eco Therapy and Child Motor Skills

Art-Eco Therapy and Child Motor Skills

Despite the known benefits of many art materials and activities in motor development, the field of art therapy could benefit from developing additional research in the area. To supplement the information on art use in therapy the literature review was expanded to the field of occupational therapy. Occupational therapy “is the use of purposeful activities or interventions designed to achieve functional outcomes which promote health, prevent injury or disability and which develop, improve, sustain or restore the highest possible level of independence of any individual” (Punwar et al., 2000, p.5).

Art activities in occupational therapy are very common especially when working with children. In a study, occupational therapist used activities such as finger painting finding small objects in materials such as clay and creating animals from pipe cleaners to help with the development of wrist stability and extension, flexibility and stability of palmar arches, isolate finger use, thumb stability, and mobility, control of radial finders with ulnar finger stabilized (Case-Smith, 1996). A study on the use of expressive arts in occupational therapy found that the most used modalities were arts and crafts. Studies show that occupational-based activities such as using expressive arts are more effective than rote exercises (TeBeest et al., 2002). Occupational therapists use activities such as drawing or coloring with pencils, crayons or painting with brushes to help children develop fine motor skills. They also use other activities such as using playdough, sand tables, cutting, and gluing projects as other activities to help children with their gross motor and fine motor skills (Marr, 2003).

Free painting, coloring using fingers, handprints, painting shapes and making circles are activities that stimulate the development of gross and fine motor skills (Basa et al, 2019, p.194). In the field of art therapy fine gross motor skills can be assessed by observing a child’s ability to: tear a piece of paper along a straight line, make a freestanding construction, make a ball or flat form in clay, hold a crayon correctly, draw a straight line, a curved line and a circle (Van Lith, 2021, p.3).

As previously mentioned, nature allows children to engage in activities that naturally help in the development of gross and fine motor skills. Nature is full of “loose parts” such as branches, twigs, rocks and pebbles, shells, feathers, leaves, flowers, and tall grass which have no clear purpose thus offering the unbounded potential for imaginative and creative play (Ernst, 2012). The manipulation of these smaller objects exercises fine motor skills. The “loose parts” that can be found in nature can also be integrated into the process of creating art. Children can arrange, cut, and/or glue found objects to create sculptures, drawings, and collages. On the other side, we can take art materials outside and create with them in nature. Children can draw, paint and create with clay what they see in nature. These activities all promote the use of fine and gross motor skills, as they require the use of both small and large muscle groups.

In outdoor eco-art therapy, individuals do activities such as cultivating plant materials throughout gardening and foraging. These practices promote skill-building and provide a means of ongoing informal assessment of the individual (Pike, 2021, p.14). In horticultural therapy, a modality of ecotherapy, the use of gardening tools, and the care that is required around plants can help with fine and gross motor skills. Actions such as removing dead leaves from around the plant, plating small seeds, pruning the plant, and even gently touching the plants make use of fine motor skills. Other actions such as watering the plants and moving bigger potted plants exercise children’s gross motor skills. The practice of horticulture therapy can be combined with art therapy by also focusing on the creative process of creating pots for the plants. This can be creating pots with clay and painting them or simply by painting on pre-made pots.

It is also important to keep in mind that doing therapy outdoors is not without boundaries or risks. Time, money, confidentiality, legal concerns, location choice, relevance to treatment goals, are just some examples of considerations to keep in mind regarding doing therapy outdoors (Pike, 2021, p.14). Because of this, despite that many nature-based therapies occur in nature (horticulture therapy, adventure therapy, wilderness therapy) they can also be adapted to indoor settings. Here the focus shifts more towards nature as material and nature as subject. Loose objects, found objects, and harvested materials can be brought indoors and used to create art pieces. More traditional art media such as crayons and watercolors can be used to create nature imagery such as landscapes, plants, and animals. In addition, activities such as gardening can be adapted to occur indoors. Another way to bring nature indoors is by having artwork or murals depicting nature scenery as well as having indoor plants in the therapy room. This way children can benefit from the healing attributes of both art and nature even without access (or other boundaries) to natural outdoor spaces.

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