By John B. Kim

JK students using colored scarves for expressive play during a SEL small group meeting

“Art has the role in education of helping children become like themselves instead of more like everyone else.” – Sydney Gurewitz Clemens

This quote from the influential American educator Sydney Gurewitz Clemens speaks to what I see as the power of the use of the arts in educating children and adolescents. Whether it’s through the drawing out of their ideas, the enactment of characters in a student-created play to demonstrate learning, or the creation of poetry around their observations of the natural world, the arts allow each student to communicate their thinking through creative products that are unique to that individual. Additionally, when an individual student’s creative products are viewed and witnessed by others, it not only helps to deepen connections to learning content, but also between the individual artist-creator and their peers and teacher.

In my current role as the school counselor at Hanahau‘oli School, I have the opportunity to observe all of this first-hand, on a day-to-day basis, as I partner with classroom teachers to integrate art and social emotional learning (SEL). I obtained my degree in Expressive Arts Therapy from the California Institute of Integral Studies in 2003. Since then I have experimented with incorporating arts-based interventions into my clinical therapy practice with children, adolescents and families, as well as the work I do teaching behavioral health professionals at all levels of training from social work, psychology and psychiatry. Over the years, I’ve developed and conducted many expressive arts based groups with children, families and adolescents in both inpatient and outpatient settings.

In this blog post, I share more about my work as an expressive arts therapist and school counselor at Hanahau‘ol. Traditionally, Hanahau’oli has had a strong arts integration into its progressive education curriculum – with teachers seamlessly incorporating art-making into students’ learning experiences. I’ve learned so much while developing my practice at Hanahau’oli, and my hope is that other schools might find ways to use art as a meaningful and impactful approach to SEL teaching and learning in their unique contexts. To articulate my successes and support others on this journey, this blog provides:

a brief summary of a popular SEL framework and curriculum used in educational systems that has been found effective when applied in an intentional way by individual schools and school districts;
the rationale for the use of the creative arts in school settings and educational programming for children;
the theories and tenets of expressive arts therapy; and
guidance on how to integrate creative art experiences into your teaching practice or other work with children.

“Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all” – Aristotle

Embedded in my sharing are examples of teaching and learning at Hanahau‘oli School. This includes samples of student work and classroom activities that illustrate how we, as a progressive education school, emphasize SEL when building learning communities that support academic growth, interpersonal development, and students’ overall well-being. The examples also demonstrate the ways in which I partner with teachers and families, which is critical to the success of our program.

Social Emotional Learning (SEL)

Before I discuss expressive arts and its application to SEL work with children, let’s review some definitions and key elements of SEL as put forth by the Collaborative on Academic and Social Emotional Learning (CASEL). CASEL is a leading resource for educators, administrators and school districts wanting to establish and support SEL programming. CASEL defines SEL as:

[A]n integral part of education and human development. SEL is the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions. (CASEL.org).

Additionally, CASEL provides evidence-based literature that supports the idea that effective SEL programming in schools not only decreases negative outcomes such as truancy and other student discipline issues, but actually impacts students’ academic performance and learning in a positive fashion.

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed the importance of SEL, student well-being, and positive socialization in the overall success of students, schools and communities. For example, Singh et. al. (2020) described the negative effects of the pandemic on student and family life during the early lockdown restrictions period including:

children experiencing uncertainty and anxiety due to the disruption of their school life, outside activities and socialization;
some children exhibiting increased irritability, inattention and clinging behavior; and
children with a history of behavioral health concerns or with identified special needs, becoming vulnerable to or at increased risk for negative outcomes (i.e. increased depression or anxiety).

The same authors also found that SEL curricula that focus on building social, communication, and problem-solving skills can contribute to students learning effective coping and self-regulation strategies to deal with such adverse events and experiences.

CASEL outlines five core competencies of SEL, which are articulated in the inner circle of this diagram of concentric circles. The CASEL “wheel” illustrates the connection between individual students’ core SEL competencies in the classroom and how they are supported by school-wide practices and policies as well as by family homes and the greater community. A feature of effective SEL programming in schools is the need for this systemic application of SEL curricula and its related materials, practices and policies (see CASEL.org).

K / 1st students create a mural about what the experience of reading is like for them

At Hanahau‘oli School, SEL is incorporated into the curriculum across all class groups from Junior Kindergarten (JK) to 6th grade. The overarching concepts that guide Hanahau‘oli’s units of study and inform the school’s spiraling curriculum include: individual / group, interdependence, community, and constancy / change. I work with teachers to integrate SEL core elements and competencies of established SEL curricula into those units of study. In devising SEL experiences, I often utilize experiential or arts-based group processes to introduce key concepts and to have students practice and demonstrate skills and competencies outlined in each unit’s instructional learning outcomes.

Children and the arts

"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up." — Pablo Picasso

The benefits of integrating the arts into early childhood and elementary school programs is reported in the online article, The Importance of Art for Child Development (see Exploringyourmind.com). The article speaks about how arts processes can positively impact both an individual child’s personal development as well as their readiness to learn. It also explains how children’s engagement in expressive or creative arts activities supports children’s development on a variety of levels (i.e. fine motor, cognitive, speech and sensory skills). The authors conclude with the idea that expressive arts-based processes allow children at all ages and stages of development to participate in a classroom or group learning environment.

A first grader’s “Identity Wheel” created after reflecting on her personal attributes and all the social roles she plays in life

When I work in the classroom alongside teachers, I observe how they match their students’ level of fine motor, cognitive, speech or sensory development to an appropriate art process. For example, the use of clay or tactile drawing materials such as oil pastels can enhance the creative exploration of young artists as they create drawings or paintings that reflect their lived experiences. Older elementary students can be introduced to art (or expressive) media that requires more developed fine motor skills.

An expressive music circle with junior kindergarteners at Hanahau’oli, spring 2023

In the picture at left, it is easy to see how these young students are each taking a turn “leading” this music circle by playing a rhythm on the large drum – practicing in real time, turn-taking, attentive listening, and impulse control. This type of expressive arts approach to SEL can lead to the development of positive self-esteem.

Another example is the junior kindergarten teachers at Hanahau‘oli who use visual art-making to encourage students’ development of a positive self-identity. The teachers ask students to reflect deeply on their physical features and to identify one of their favorite body parts. The children first draw a picture of their favorite physical feature in their journals, and then a teacher takes a photo so that each student can share this out with the entire class. The photos are paired with captions of the students’ verbal sharing about why they chose a particular body part. Again, this demonstrates how the integration of the arts and SEL develops positive self-esteem.

The integration of arts and SEL also provides a powerful avenue for children to express and process their feelings. On August 8, 2023, a series of wildfires on the island of Maui burned over 6,500 acres of land, causing a tremendous loss of life, destruction of property and the total obliteration of historic Lahaina town, once the capital of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i. The impact of this disaster was felt across the Hawaiian islands as people had personal, familial, and cultural connections to the people and places on Maui island.

Occurring right before the start of the 2023-2024 school year, students and teachers returned to Hanahau‘oli with this heavy event weighing on their minds. In addition to school-wide acknowledgement and processing of the impact of the Maui wildfires on our community, this event also engendered an empathetic response in students, faculty and staff. Teachers, student support and afterschool programming staff encouraged students to create cards for the first responders on Maui – to express appreciation for these helpers and to offer deep condolences for the personal and collective losses. This is just one example of an arts-based activity that can support students in processing feelings and connecting with others.

The integration of SEL and art also helps children to learn important values and allows for the practice of positive social skills. As a lot of SEL lessons are conducted with the whole class or with small groups of children. The social container of the group and its dynamics makes an ideal setting to practice social and other interpersonal skills. A group can be divided into pairs that can practice effective listening and speaking skills. For example, a collaborative art-making project like the creation of a class “crest” or banner can encourage some of the core SEL competencies such as social awareness and relationship skills. Additionally, role-playing (seen below) can become a way for students to practice social skills like sharing, joining others in play, and how peers can be inclusive when approached by others in social situations

Arts integration into curriculum design is a key feature in a lot of progressive education programs because it allows students to demonstrate their learning, to show their thinking, and to share personal narratives that connect them to the real world. For example, a 6th grade teacher at Hanahau‘oli describes the visual art-based activity illustrated below. “This [student’s] self-profile consolidates our exploration of identity. A set of symbols representing one’s dreams and goals, strengths, values, and support system fill an outline of the student's head and face” (student progress report, SY 2023 - 2024).

In describing his “self profile” featured at right, this student writes: “What are my strengths? What am I ‘good’ at? What is my ‘gift’ to my community? My design for this is a boy laughing. I chose this because I know that I am a very social person and I love to make people laugh. I can sometimes be a very talkative person and I sometimes make people laugh when I don’t even realize it.” He then goes on to say, “The world demonstrates my love of learning about the world and how much I adore geography and history. My wish for world peace and harmony among all people is symbolized by the peace sign on the globe.” It is clear from these examples how SEL and expressive arts support the development of students’ emotional intelligence – creating empathetic individuals.

Expressive Arts Therapy

Students engaged in expressive play with colored scarves, 2023

Expressive arts therapy is a distinct and established field that draws on the knowledge and skill work of the other creative arts therapies – art, music, drama, dance and movement therapy. It is a “multi-modal” (multi-arts) approach to working with individuals, families and groups on a variety of clinical, social or behavioral health issues (Knill, Barba, & Fuchs, 1995; McKniff, 1981; Rogers, 1993). If you have ever used role-playing in your work with children to develop social skills, you are essentially borrowing an intervention from the field of drama therapy. If you have students make artwork around the problem and possible solutions, you are using a technique from art therapy.

As the above photographs illustrate, the expressive arts can provide a non-verbal avenue for the unique expression of a child’s identity, their feelings and other internal experiences. Because arts-based activities can take into consideration the physical, developmental or cognitive level of participants, they can provide meaningful exploratory experiences for diverse groups of children (or for a classroom with a wide range of developing learners). The strong organizing principles of certain art modalities (i.e. improvisational music-making; dramatic enactments) make them well-suited to encouraging attunement and attention among a group of students. Additionally, the expressive arts can provide for both individual exploration as well as interpersonal relating among students. For example, an individual student can draw what a certain feeling state is like for them, but then the facilitator can have students arrange their individual drawings into a “sculpture” that shows how these individual experiences are related or connected to each other.

Students gather to share individual self-portraits then arrange their drawings to show relationships

The expressive arts can also provide containment of subject material, as certain art processes have the ability to “contain” an experience so that students can focus on the subject at hand. For example, children drawing out their experience of anger can provide a window of insight into this feeling state in a safe and manageable way.

Certain art forms can also amplify subject matter. For example, dramatic enactment lends itself to amplifying SEL experiences to consolidate learning. In the above example of a K/1st social skills building group, enacting the scene brings the SEL to life. Finally, arts processes like visual art-making create “artifacts” of learning – as the above “self profiles” demonstrate.

In sum, the main tenets of expressive arts practice are:

“Low skill – high sensitivity” (Knill et al., 1995) – arts processes that are simple and engageable for a wide variety of participants can yield meaningful results in terms of self-disclosure and self-expression.
Emphasis on process as much as product – rather than analyzing the product of artistic expression, expressive arts therapy is also focused on the process of the creative act (i.e. a processing question might be what was it like to create this art work together?)
Multimodal – multi-modal means “multi-art” which refers to the power of stacking arts processes on each other to deepen an expressive experience. For example, a music circle could play the rhythm for movers moving with scarves in the middle.
Intermodal – refers to the process of taking the same material from one art form to another. For example, children might be asked to draw out their feelings of sadness, then the facilitator might ask them to show with their bodies this feeling state.
Selecting an appropriate art form for individual or group exploration – expressive arts therapists are trained to recognize the power of each particular art form and can match an art modality to the particular needs of an individual or group

Putting it all together

The power of the expressive arts in SEL work is demonstrated in the following examples of student work created individually and then put together in collective images. As the photographs demonstrate, the ability of art to bring individuals together makes it an ideal way for students to practice their interpersonal effectiveness. Co-creation involves communication, collaboration and perspective taking between individual students. Art materials are shared as well as thoughts and ideas toward accomplishing a shared goal. Individual pieces are shared and then incorporated into a collective image which then becomes more powerful in conveying its message to the viewer (or audience).

The one caveat I would give on the use of the creative arts is the importance for you, as the facilitator, to hold an authentic belief in the power of creativity to deepen children’s exploration and learning about themselves and the world. Art-making and creative arts-based experiences should not be seen as simply an activity to fill up time or for a point of transition on the day’s schedule. The creative arts really invite children to express themselves in a highly personal and meaningful way. How we hold students during this freeing, and at times, vulnerable process is what yields their deeper reflection on what arises from these experiences. With that, I am also not saying that everything that arises from these creative acts is joyful, positive or wholly accurate in terms of what or how the child shares their perceptions of themselves and the world. That is ok too, and is why I leave you with these additional practices that I have found useful in facilitating creativity in group work with children and adolescents:

Foster a playful atmosphere – emphasize process not product
As a group leader, model qualities of relaxed curiosity
Encourage spontaneity – keep arts processes short and simple
Use warm-up exercises to develop participants’ comfort level with an art form – for example: in preparing for role-plays, work on children using their whole bodies to enact scenes (i.e. using fine motor and large muscle movement; playing with different ways to say the same line)
Safety – establish group guidelines for participation, including how to respond to the artwork or images presented by others (perhaps give them sentence stems to complete: I see… I like… I wonder…)
Remove judgments and the “inner critic” that can discourage creativity – emphasize no “right” or “wrong” way to do a certain process

As you can tell from the examples I’ve shared and my overall passion for this work, I believe strongly in the role that the arts can play in creating a rich path for exploration and learning. I also view the integration of art and SEL into every child’s school experience as an essential element of a high quality progressive education. Hopefully this overview of the power of the expressive arts in SEL inspires you to think creatively of how you might incorporate art and SEL into the work you do with children.

For more on how Hanahau‘oli School incorporates the creative arts into their educational experiences with children, please view this video from the Hawaii Association of Independent Schools (HAIS) video library: Social-Emotional Learning and Expression Through the Creative Arts

References:

On-line

The Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning: CASEL.org

Exploring Your Mind. (2019, August 15). The Importance of Art for Child Development. Exploring Your Mind. https://exploringyourmind.com/importance-art-child-development/

Civil Beat on Maui wildfires

Singh, S., Roy, D., Sinha, K., Parveen, S., Sharma, G., and Joshi, G. (2020). Impact of COVID-19 and lockdown on mental health of children and adolescents: A narrative review with recommendations. Psychiatry Res., Nov; 293: 113429. Published online 2020 Aug 24. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2020.113429

In Print

Avrahami, D. (2005), Visual Art Therapy’s Unique Contribution in the Treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorders (from Journal of Trauma and Dissociation)

Kim, J., Kirchhoff, M., & Whitsett, S. (2011). Expressive arts group therapy with middle-school aged children from military families. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 38(5), 356-362.

Knill, P. J., Barba, H. N., & Fuchs, M. N. (1995). Minstrels of soul: Intermodal expressive therapy. Toronto: Palmerston Press.

McKniff, S. (1981). The arts and psychotherapy. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas Pub. Ltd

Payton, J.W., Wardlaw, D.M., Graczyk, P.A. Bloodworth, M.R., Tompsett, C.J., & Weissberg,R.P. (2000) Social and Emotional Learning: A Framework for Promoting Mental Health and Reducing Risk Behavior in Children and Youth. Journal of School Health, 70(5), 179-185.

Rogers, N. (1993). The creative connection: Expressive arts as healing. Science & Behavior Books, Inc: Palo Alto, CA.

The Power of the Expressive Arts in Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Work with Children

Social Emotional Learning (SEL)

Children and the arts

Expressive Arts Therapy

Putting it all together

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