Autistic Children's Drawings as Evidence of Visual Communication and Learning

From a post-modern perspective, drawings and visual images in general are regarded as documents. As such, they are carriers of meaning and therefore have a communicative role in post-modern human societies (Wolcott, 1996). Visual literacy, the ability to extract meaning and communicate successfully via visual images, develops in a way similar to verbal literacy, through exposure to visual stimuli over time, most often without any formal instruction. When working with children with autism spectrum disorders, where impairments in social interaction and communication are prevalent, the use of drawings can have multidimensional benefits for them as well as their educators. They function both as a means of communication and interaction among the autistic children and their peers and they provide their teachers with evidence of their interaction and learning. This project is based on five longitudinal case studies, with each one following the evolution of drawing by a child with autism influenced by other children with autism. The five children are pupils at a special education unit of an elementary school in Cyprus. The data analysis was based on the application of inductive methods for decoding the drawings made by each child, while using videos of the children being involved in the drawing process, as well as their oral descriptions of their drawings for triangulation purposes. Through a thorough examination of these children’s spontaneous and non-spontaneous drawing production, the findings of this project reveal signs of unforced peer learning which occurs naturally, alongside the conventional class learning context. They also provide evidence that the use of drawing in the special unit classroom context and practice can foster the interaction among children and teachers and serve as tool of communication.