«My sensory map factory», Marc-Aurèle-Fortin Primary School (Montreal) - 2021/2022 

Presentation card

• Project Name: My Sensory Map Factory
• Participating School: Marc-Aurèle-Fortin Elementary School, Rivière-des-Prairies
• Participating group: 7 2nd year students living with autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
• Project dates: February to June 2022 (5 months)
• Discipline: art therapy
• Speaker: Maria Riccardi, clinical coordinator of OBM projects, art therapist, M.A, doctoral student in psychology, ATPQ

Description

The workshop offered young people the opportunity to make cards from different artistic materials, as well as to create a personalized and imaged mailbox to insert their creations. At the end of the project, each student chose a card from those made, which was then printed and distributed to people in their school community (family, teachers, friends).

Interactions with materials in art have made it possible to identify and differentiate their needs, promoting interpersonal relationships. Through art-therapeutic interventions, these young people having difficulty in verbalizing their feelings communicated their emotions through lines, colors and shapes.