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Professional portraits of the students, paired with
activities or objects they selected as motivators for their emotions, will be on
view at The Warhol in an exhibition titled About Face, opening Feb. 4, 2012.
Photography by Arne Svenson
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The Art of Reading a Face - As part of an innovative new partnership with a local school, The Warhol is using Andy Warhol’s full bag of art-making tricks to help kids with autism develop face-reading skills.
...This exercise is just one lesson in an
arts-focused curriculum developed by educators at The Andy Warhol Museum in
partnership with nationally acclaimed educator Abraham-Braff to teach facial
cues to this moderate- to high-functioning group of students at Wesley Spectrum
Highland School, a private school in the South Hills of Pittsburgh that serves
students with learning and behavior issues.
Now in its second year, the focus of the program is helping students interpret, as well as mirror, five simple emotions: happy, sad, angry, scared, and surprised.
Now in its second year, the focus of the program is helping students interpret, as well as mirror, five simple emotions: happy, sad, angry, scared, and surprised.
Now in its second year, the focus of the program is
helping students interpret, as well as mirror, five simple emotions: happy, sad,
angry, scared, and surprised.
This difference, he notes, seems to have its roots in an area of the brain called the furiform gyrus. In typically developed brains, this region is activated more by faces than other objects. But not so for people with autism; when looking at a face, the area of the brain that lights up for them is one typically associated with what’s called non-expert objects, suggesting that they view a face as just another object, not as anything special. [Jim Tanaka, a face researcher in the psychology department at the University of Victoria in British Columbia]
This difference, he notes, seems to have its roots in an area of the brain called the furiform gyrus. In typically developed brains, this region is activated more by faces than other objects. But not so for people with autism; when looking at a face, the area of the brain that lights up for them is one typically associated with what’s called non-expert objects, suggesting that they view a face as just another object, not as anything special. [Jim Tanaka, a face researcher in the psychology department at the University of Victoria in British Columbia]
“I literally got swept into their fever pitch of
creativity,” says Svenson, who has a background in special education.
“It wasn’t an easy task to get them to match their
expression to the emotion; they struggle with identifying and mirroring
emotion,” says Varner. “But it was a good learning exercise. And working with a
New York artist, who was there specifically for them, gave them a huge boost in
self confidence.”
Produced as glossy keepsake booklets for the kids, the
portraits—each paired with the object or activity selected by the students as
motivators for their emotions—will be on view at The Warhol in an exhibition
titled About Face, opening Feb.
4, 2012.
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Students tried their hands at ink-blot drawing, silkscreening, and even fashioned their own sock monkeys, matching the puppet’s facial expression to its imagined personality.
To improve “face expertise” in children with ASD—now on
average one in every 110 children—Tanaka developed the Let’s Face It! computer
program, a collaborative project with the Yale Child Study Center funded by the
National Institutes of Health. This series of computer games tasks kids with
distinguishing faces from everyday objects, attaching labels to facial
expressions, and interpreting the meaning of facial cues in a social
context.
published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, with museum educators. His research showed
that when 42 children with autism played just 20 hours of Let’s Face It!, it
created measurable improvement in their recognition abilities. (The program can
be downloaded for free at
http://web.uvic.ca/~letsface/letsfaceit.)
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“We want to teach the kids better self-awareness and
understanding of nonverbal facial recognition skills, key tools in everyday
problem solving.”
- Art teacher Lynda Abraham-Braff
By Julie Hannon
[read the complete article]
Carnegie Magazine | Winter 2011 | The Art of Reading a Face - By Julie Hannon
www.carnegiemuseums.org/
Note: 'About Face', 'Let's Face It' and 'The Art of Face Recognition'(article) continues the latest series entitled, AUTISTImotions. Individuals on the Autism Spectrum are emotional, feel emotions, express emotions and can learn the concepts of emotions. AUTISTImotions is the intellectual
property, a copyright, trademark, and service mark of
EnjoyHi5Autism.
More info. on 'About
Face'
Photo exhibit focuses on emotions of students with autism ...
... exhibition of the work of photographer Arne Svenson has opened at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. Svenson's ... photo. The "About Face" exhibit is part of the museum's ...
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... exhibition of the work of photographer Arne Svenson has opened at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. Svenson's ... photo. The "About Face" exhibit is part of the museum's ...
www.smartbrief.com/servlet/ArchiveServlet?issueid=E07198...
Carnegie Magazine | Winter 2011 | The Art of Reading a Face - By Julie Hannon
"Life on the Autism Spectrum can be ENJOYable."
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Thanks for sharing.