They take turns aiming at the makeshift dartboard. They keep score and even root for each other. They enjoy themselves and, importantly, contain themselves.
When we think about containing children’s behavior, we often cut our options short, relying either on verbal limits (stop, don’t, not okay) or removing them from the activity. While, indeed, removal is sometimes the only option, these common strategies significantly reduce our opportunities to teach children how to stay engaged and expressive in a manner that is safe, respectful, and in line with our values. Containment comes in many different forms. It may include clarifying expectations, offering alternative choices, or providing boundaries, as in the example above. For any of these to be effective, however, the choice of containment must be informed by needs underlying the behavior.
A single behavior can represent any number of needs, feelings, thoughts, concerns, or curiosities, depending upon the child and the situation. An adult may insist, “Stop drawing on the furniture.” However, changing a child’s behavior requires addressing the underlying reasons for the action: Did she not know the rule? Is she testing a limit? Is she curious about how the marker looks on the sofa? Is it part of her play? Did she run out of paper and not know what to do? Is she angry? If the child was never taught the rule, or needs reminding, a simple reminder and redirection to a piece of paper may be sufficient. However, if the child is angry, reminders alone will not address the issue. She’ll likely scribble on the wall or table next, just to make her point known. In such a case, the anger needs to be addressed also.
Sometimes we can take an educated guess as to the need behind the action. With the marker-throwing teens in the example above, I had a good hunch that their needs included fun and energy release. They were also testing my limits. The containment of a large piece of paper, a piece of tape on the floor, and a simple set of directions responded to each of these needs: 1) yes, we can have fun, 2) yes, we can get our energy out without throwing things at each other, and 3) yes, I can handle whatever you throw at me (literally).
If you’re uncertain of the need behind the behavior, try these steps (see fig. 2.2):
2.2 Identify and address underlying needs
If the same behavior persists, consider providing containment by making the items in question available only under supervision. The scissors in my house have fallen into that category several times. Over the years my three kids have, at various times, cut their own hair, a pillow, window blinds, the rug, each other’s belongings, and more. The needs behind the actions have varied from “my bangs were too long” to “I was mad” or “I wanted to see if the scissors were sharp enough to cut this . . . and they were!” For repeat offenses, regardless of the underlying reason, you can explain, “I’m going to put the scissors away. When you need to use them, if I’m available, I will get them and sit with you while you use them.” This applies to other materials as well.
Paint and pencil yield different powers
“Using markers and paper, draw something from nature,” I announce to a group of teens with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We are generating images for a mural they will later paint in the school courtyard. They set to work at their desks and voilà! Drawings of trees, flowers, a pond, a volcano, a forest, butterflies, and more. The next week, we brainstorm further. They are given paint and work in pairs to create images of nature again. We get muddy mess, frustration, conflict, and shutdown. What happened?
Materials have different properties and thus evoke different experiences in the user. Structured materials such as markers, pencils and erasers, rulers, collage materials, and glue sticks tend to be containing. They are less tactile and easier to control. On the other hand, looser materials like paint, wet clay, runny glue, and glitter are harder to control. They tend to be oozy and gooey, sticky, or messy and, like their sensory qualities, can loosen up emotions and impulses as well. Because of this, sometimes the key to balancing self-expression and containment resides within the properties of the art materials themselves.
Returning to the example above, there are several ways to explain what may have gone awry during the painting activity: lack of interest in the activity, lack of technical skill, inability to collaborate. But none of these fit. The students were invested. They were able to draw images from nature. They were capable of collaborating . . . they just needed more containment to be successful at it. As is typical for individuals on the autism spectrum, social interactions were not only difficult but also distressing. Offering a loose material, when these teens were already feeling challenged socially and emotionally, was not a recipe for success. They needed more structure and containment, and we could provide that through a simple change in materials.
We swap paints and brushes for materials that provide significantly more containment and structure. By shrinking and photocopying their original nature drawings onto transparencies, our students are able to overlap their images with those of their classmates, thus creating a single, combined image. A tree on one transparency can now find a home next to an ocean from another transparency. Using an overhead projector to project and trace their combined images onto a single piece of paper, they successfully work together to create a collaborative landscape.
Thinking about the materials that you offer and how they might affect emotions and behavior can make all the difference in helping your child explore the balance between freedom of expression and self-containment. If she is playing with looser material, it’s important to think about how to help contain the energy that the material creates. In the face of a more challenging task, your child may benefit from more structured materials. Here are some more examples of ways to use materials to help children from getting too carried away, overwhelmed, or overstimulated by an art activity:
• Put a paper plate or tray under clay, glitter, or beading activities.
• Offer a smaller piece of paper instead of an overwhelmingly large one. Or place a larger piece of paper beneath the smaller one. The larger piece of paper can essentially “frame” the smaller one, providing clearer visual boundaries for art making. If a child is working with paint or a similarly loose material, the larger piece will also catch the overflow and prevent it from ending up on the table.
• Make hand wipes accessible.
• Place finger paints and paper inside a shallow box.
Conversely, looser materials may be useful for children who could use a little loosening up. For children who become easily frustrated, don’t like messes, or tend to be hard on themselves, you may want to slowly challenge them to have fun with looser materials:
• Offer paints and the task to “make the ugliest painting possible.”
• Provide larger paper, paintbrushes, and sponges. Put paper on a floor, wall, or easel instead of on the confinements of a table.
• Experiment with process-based activities without any expectations for the outcome. For example, attach crayons to the top of a canvas with hot glue. Then use a hair dryer to melt the crayons and watch them drip down the canvas.
Keeping the properties of materials in mind isn’t only about containing messes and behavior with which we prefer not to deal. When we provide support for children to practice the balance of self-expression and self-management, we are helping them prepare for life (see fig.
