Welcome to the Attention Deficit Disorder Expert Podcast Series by Attitude magazine.

Hey everyone, it's Susan Coffin and you are listening to Attitude magazine's ADHD experts audio.

We are really pleased to welcome Stacy Nelson today to talk about the benefits of art therapy for children with

ADHD and learning disabilities. Children have a natural propensity to

communicate through art and through play and art therapy takes advantage of that,

uses drawing, painting, sculpting to help children develop

interpersonal skills, manage behavior, and increase self-awareness.

So Stacy Nelson is going to tell us a lot more about how our therapy actually helps the child address

their personal challenges through both physical activity and sensory integration, about strategies

that parents can use at home to make art with their children and are projects

that any parent can use and she'll tell us about some of her children she's

work with who have benefited from our therapy sessions and also address to some degree the extent to which school staff can encourage

art in the classroom and finally she's going to talk a bit about how you can find a good

art therapist. Let me introduce Stacy briefly to you, the listeners.

She teaches in the graduate art therapy program

at George Washington University

in Washington, D.C.

And she also provides art therapy

the special needs students at a number of schools in the region including the Kennedy-Crigger School in Montgomery County and others.

She's a member of the Maryland Art Therapy Association and received her MA and therapy from

University of Lewisville and her VA and Studio Art and Psychology from Notre Dame of Maryland.

So Stacy, thank you so much for joining us today.

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