Meeting Individualized Education Program Goals Through the Arts for Students with Disabilities

The number of children being identified and classified under autism is continually increasing and more and more of these students are enrolling in schools and receiving special education services. Depending on the severity of the students autism, they may receive a variety of services including behavior intervention, occupational therapy, speech and language, and adaptive physical education among many others. Educators and specialists work together to build programs that best meet the needs of each individual with autism. Following a students IEP can make it easy to get lost in the process and forget about how many opportunities there are in each school day to make progress towards goals without directly working on a goal. One subject that often gets overlooked as a great opportunity for growth in social skills, motor development, and behavior is art. The focus of this project was to research and develop a set of art-based lesson plans that meet the universal needs of students with ASD in the areas of social skills, motor development, and pro-social behavior.Educatio