Communicating Through Art

By Judith Maginnis Kuster

Throughout history, artists have depicted disabilities relating to communicative disorders. For example, an Egyptian hieroglyph (www.mnsu.edu/comdis/kuster/kids/kidfaq.html#first) said to depict stuttering shows a person trying to speak, but words are blockedby a series of walls. William Hogarth's etching "Gin Lane" (www.adnax.com/views/viewsoflondoncharacters02.htm) is sometimes cited as possibly depicting of fetal alcohol syndrome in the faces of the children. Norma Benger's Aboriginal Australian artwork, "Ngummama - Dragonfly" (www.healthinfonet.edu.au/html/html_community/ear_health_community/norma_benger.htm) depicts a legend in which grandmothers catch dragonflies to test the baby's hearing by having them buzz near the baby's ears. An obscure Polish artist, Stanislav Szukalsk (1893-1987 named one of his sculptures Stuttering Philosopher (http://szukalski.com/sculpture_stuttering_philosopher.html).

People with communication impairments may be depicted in art, but they also create art. Art therapy (www.arttherapy.org/) is a relatively new credentialed mental health profession that uses the creative process to improve and enhance the physical, mental, and emotional well-being of individuals of all ages. Like speech-language pathology and audiology, the profession requires a master's degree.

Cathy A. Malchiodi, author of The Art Therapy Sourcebook (Lowell House: Lincolnwood, IL, 1998) defines two values of the visual arts: art making can be healing because it helps a person transcend daily life and bring "wholeness;" artworks can also communicate important information relevant to therapy, including changes over time. Following are examples of art created by persons who may receive treatment from a speech-language pathologist and/or audiologist.

Transcending Daily Life

Clinicians may challenge some of their clients to create artwork and decorate (with permission) their office or classroom.

Art by people with Autism

• Very detailed drawings by a child with autism (http://web.singnet.com.sg/~autism/drawings.htm)
• Donna Williams' online painting and sculpture.
• Autism Acceptance Project (www.taaproject.com/gallery.cfm) gallery of art works.
• Richard Wawro's gallery (www.wawro.net)
• The UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute collection of artwork created by children and adults with autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders (www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/news/images/mind/artists.html).
• Art and Autism online gallery (www.card-uk.org/artgallery.html)
• Artwork from beautiful children with autism (www.autismlink.com/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=Artwork-from-children-with-autism)
• Art for Autism (www.aheadwithautism.com/viewart.html)

Art by people with cerebral palsy

• Virtual Gallery (www.hbo.com/kinggimp/gallery/index.html) by "King Gimp," Dan Keplinger (who was featured in an HBO special)
• Cerebral Palsy didn't stop painter Ralph Bell (www.case.edu/pubs/cnews/2001/1-11/bell-art.htm)
• Mary Ann Hennosy (www.maryannhennosy.com/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=6265)

Art by adults with language impairment

• Aphasia: art therapy (www.naz.edu/dept/creativearts_therapy/facartwork.cfm)
• Alzheimer's disease (www.gloriajean.org/main/004_Gloria's_Art.cfm)

Art by people with hearing loss

• Art Therapy for Deaf is a small yahoogroups mailing list "for those who use art in their clinical work and healing approaches with youths and adults who are deaf, hard of hearing, late-deafened, or deafblind." The files of this list contain pictures by artists who are deaf. (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ArtTherapy4Deaf)
• Symbolism in Paintings by Living Deaf Artists (www.istc.cnr.it/mostralis/eng/pannello26.htm).
• Charles Bourke Wildbank gallery (www.wildbank.com/p181.htm).
• Chuck's Brushes (www.chuckbaird.com/?page=gallery) by Charles Baird

Communicating Information Relevant to Treatment

Visual arts can communicate in ways words cannot. Art can connect our thoughts, feelings and perceptions with life experiences; help us understand who we are; help relieve overwhelming emotions; help discover insights about ourselves; help make sense of something painful; and help relieve stress. (Malchoiodi, 1998). In cooperation with an art therapist, we can learn important information from the artwork of our clients.

Study the potential messages from the following artwork related to health conditions and disorders:

• A study on "The Usefulness of Children's Drawings in the Diagnosis of Headache" asked 226 children to draw a picture to show how their headache felt. The drawings differentiated migraine and non-migraine headaches, including focal neurologic symptoms. (http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/109/3/460)
• Alzheimer's disease - "Work progressing on Alzheimer's, but too slowly" (www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2005/10.20/11-alz.html); Art Therapy with Older Adults Clinically Diagnosed as Having Alzheimer's Disease and Dementias (www.routledgementalhealth.com/wallerartstherapies/tyler.asp); and A Narrowed Sense of Space: An Art Therapy Group with Young Alzheimer's Sufferers (www.routledgementalhealth.com/wallerartstherapies/falk.asp).
• Stuttering -- Gallery representing stuttering through drawing (www.stutteringtherapy.org/gallery.html) collected by Adriana DiGrande, Stuttering Gallery collected by Judy Kuster, (www.mnsu.edu/comdis/ISAD3/papers/gallery/albumindex.html), and "A Picture Is Worth One Thousand Words" by Judy Kuster, Anders Lundberg, Adriana DiGrande, and Lori Andrews (www.mnsu.edu/comdis/ISAD3/papers/kuster.html). The drawings show the physical and emotional impact of stuttering, external locus of control, and both pain and progress a child who stutters may experience.

• Lev-Wiesel R, Yosipov-Kaziav J (2005) Deafness As Reflected in Self-Figure Drawings of Deaf People Journal of Developmental and Physical Disabilities 17(2), 203-212. (www.citeulike.org/article/206873)
• Lev-Wiesel R, Shabat A, Tsur A. (2005) Stuttering as Reflected in Adults' Self-Figure Drawings 17(1), 85-93. (www.citeulike.org/article/144900)

Judith Kuster is a professor in the Department of Speech, Hearing, and Rehabilitation Services at Minnesota State University, Mankato. Contact her at judith.kuster@mnsu.edu. All of Kuster's Internet columns are on ASHA's Web site in HTML format with active links (www.asha.org/about/publications/leader-online/archives/news.htm), although URLs change and there is no guarantee that links from previous articles are still functional.

Kuster, JM, Communicating Through Art, ASHA Leader, August 14, 2007, p. 38.