To Paint or Not To Paint

That is the question. Katharine, Gregory, and I have tried painting in art therapy for approximately five sessions. Some were a little more successful than others but for the most part Gregory's engagement rate has been minimal.

When he did go through the motions of finger painting he did not focus on the difference his hands and fingers were making in creating patterns of the color on the paper. There is a disconnect between what his hand do and what his eyes see.

We have tried the finger paint with different types of plastic gloves on a piece of paper taped to a tray. Today we tried an easel with crayons. We also tried Cray-Pas oil pastels and markers.

Gregory goes into a "I need to disappear now" shutdown, the nature of which I do not fully understand. When he cannot function, or possibly cannot piece together the necessary skills, he closes his eyes, bows his head, and sometimes leans forward.

When asked, "Are you sleeping?" he opens his eyes and said, "No." But when we try to re-engage him in painting he "shuts down" again. We tried moving his hands and arms through the motions. Not successful.

We sat quietly and waited for three for four or five minutes to see if he would respond to the Cray-Pas stick in his hand. Not successful. Katharine tried to position a marker in his hand like one would hold a pen and while he was able to do so, it lasted only for seconds.

Every now and then his fingers or hand would make a slight movement, or spasm. Perhaps the muscle memory cues that his brain was sending got through but only for a brief second.

Kathleen tried a drum filled with steel beads that makes a rattling noise. Gregory opened his eyes to study where the noise was coming from but then shut down.

Next I noticed that he placed his hands in a "playing piano" position with the drum so we got a xylophone off the shelf to see if Gregory could use the padded sticks to at least make some musical noise. Not successful.

So it looks like our nobel experiment was well worth the time but not the results and perhaps only served to frustrate Gregory. We will probably discontinue "painting" but I have to think about the possibility of putting him in front of a piano (or possibly an electronic keyboard which would be easier to play) and see if he would at least make some musical noise. I hesitate if only because I do not want to open unwanted doors to unnecessary emotions.