Therapeutic and aesthetic application of video with the developmentally disabled

Abstract

This paper will explore the use of video with clients classified as mentally retarded, multiply handicapped, autistic or severely learning disabled, a population that has been historically largely underserved by the mental health professions. Applications will include video as a tool for assessing client performance, as an expressive art medium, for program documentation and as a means of promoting the therapeutic experience. Video is a medium that is central to the lives of most people, including those who are mentally handicapped. In institutions, hospitals, group homes, schools and households across the country, the ubiquitous television and VCR provide entertainment, companionship and information. Television is most often regarded as a passive medium that demands a minimum of creative or thoughtful expenditure. For this reason it has been much maligned. Kramer (1979, R16) considered it an ever-available slave who helps endure loneliness, anxiety and isolation, and enfeebles the healthy impetus to seek out relationships or turn passive experiences into active mastery. However, with the expansion of video-recording technology (as well as computer technology) millions have come to utilize the medium on an active and interactive basis with far greater creative expressivity than was previously thought possible. The developmentally disabled have had only limited access to interactive forms of video beyond the traditional passive means of entertainment. More often, clients have been subjects of documentaries and program archives (see Wiseman) or, in rare instances, they have performed in video productions, one being Robert Wilson’s “Deafman Glance” (1970). The deficits usually regarded as characteristic of those afflicted with neurological damage are insufficient cognitive capabilities, language skills and the handling of even basic technologies. Educational concerns, however, have led to adapting the technology to increase its accessibility for the entire range of developmentally disabled clients, including those who are profoundly mentally retarded. Utilized as a means of multi-sensory stimulation, video provides clients with lively audiovisual experiences. Despite their very limited capacities to follow narrative or express preferences, clients have responded to a range of unlikely videotapes, such as David Bymes’ concert tape “Stop Making Sense,” Laurie Anderson’s “United States,” and Disney’s “Fantasia” as well as other art-school tapes produced at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In some instances, sensory stimulation is more effective when toned down, particularly for those who are easily overstimulated, those with hyperactivity or autism. Tapes featuring a quiet snowfall, a walk in the woods, a view of an aquarium provide needed stimulation and vicarious experience for those unable to participate directly. Video can directly engage both educational and therapeutic issues indigenous to the developmentally