Presented by Courtney Carnes, Monarch Art Therapist; Julie Hopkins, Monarch Music Therapist; and Erin Witschey, Monarch Recreational Therapist
Sponsored by Monarch Center for Autism, STAR Autism Support, and VizZle

Watch the Recording

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Art, music, and recreational therapy support the acquisition of social skills for individuals of all ages on the autism spectrum. Imagine using these creative disciplines to apply social skills such as turn-taking, prospective-taking, and team-building. Through various interventions including emotional expression through art, lyric analysis, and group games, we are able to apply social skills throughout our multi-modal sessions to support the generalization of these skills to the real world. In this edWebinar, Courtney Carnes, Art Therapist, Julie Hopkins, Music Therapist, and Erin Witschey, Recreational Therapist:

• Explain what art, music, and recreational therapy are
• Discuss how art, music, and recreational therapy apply social skills such as turn-taking, prospective-taking, and team-building
• Provide examples of creative activities that can be implemented by any educator to apply and generalize social skills

This presentation is the continuation of Art, Music & Recreational Therapy: Incorporating Creative Approaches for Students with Autism, presented by Courtney, Julie, and Erin in May of 2017. PreK through high school teachers and related service providers will benefit from watching this recorded session.

About the Presenters

Courtney Carnes holds a Master’s Degree in art therapy with a concentration in counseling from Mount Mary University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and a Bachelor of Science in pre-art therapy with a minor in leadership from Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion, Indiana. While in graduate school, Courtney held internships at a local children’s hospital and adult transitional housing facility. Courtney joined the staff at Monarch Center for Autism in August 2014. Since then, she has continued to build the art therapy program for children ages 3 through 21 years.

Julie Hopkins graduated with honors from Ohio University with a Bachelor of Music in music therapy. Following graduation, she completed her clinical internship at Monroe #1 BOCES in Rochester, New York. She provided related service music therapy to students with a variety of diagnoses in both center-based and district-based school settings. She also worked as the summer music therapist at Creekside School in Fairport, New York. Julie came to Monarch Center for Autism in 2014. She continues to grow the music therapy program, providing both group and individual sessions to target a variety of goal areas such as socialization, academics, emotional/behavioral, and sensory input.

Erin Witschey graduated with honors from Ashland University in Ashland, Ohio with a Bachelor of Science in recreation with a concentration in therapeutic recreation. Post-graduation, she worked full-time in summer camps, including time at an Easterseals camp for children and adults with disabilities, where she adapted programming to be accessible for all participants. Erin came to Monarch Center for Autism in 2013 as the gross motor instructor and has developed a program that provides needed sensory inputs while practicing a variety of motor skills.

Join the Teaching Students with Autism community to network with educators, participate in online discussions, receive invitations to upcoming webinars, view past webinars, take a quiz to receive a CE certificate for a past webinar, and access free resources.

Monarch Center for Autism, a division of Bellefaire JCB, is located in Cleveland, Ohio. Monarch offers a comprehensive array of programs and services for individuals ages three through adulthood with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Highlights, which incorporate Monarch’s visual language treatment model, include a preschool; day school for children, adolescents & young adults; transition education program; summer & extended school year programs; therapeutic residential treatment program; adult vocational & supported living programs; and community training.

STAR Autism Support (SAS) provides curriculum materials, workshops and training to school and agency staff who work with students with autism. Our mission is to help others successfully implement research-based applied behavior analysis (ABA) techniques. We want every child with autism to receive effective instruction!

VizZle provides a library of more than 14,000 lessons and the tools and media to customize them or create your own from scratch. The lessons can be tailored to any grade level, assigned to any student, and played on iPad or Android tablets, laptop or desktop computers. Data is tracked automatically. This award-winning software is developed collaboratively with educators.