MODELING

MODELING is one of the methods of fine art that allows you to create all kinds of compositions. There is practically no child who would not like to sculpt. You can mold anything, for which there is enough imagination, and if it didn’t work out or you got tired of the craft, you can redo it, unlike the same drawing, which is practically impossible to redo. Why is modeling so good? Why is it often chosen when working with various mental processes?

First, you need to choose the material from which the product will be made. For young children, plasticine is more suitable, which does not require special skills and additional devices. Teenagers and adults can use any available material (clay, sculptural plasticine, polymer masses for modeling, dough). The hand of a younger student, especially those who have just entered the first grade, is often weak, so plasticine or salt dough for modeling should be soft, but not fluid. Fluid plasticine melts quickly, which does not give the desired shape, spoils the overall look of the work. Even for working with an appliqué or a pattern, such plasticine is not very convenient. Sculptural plasticine for younger students is also not suitable, since it has a high density and it is difficult for children with a poorly developed hand to work with it. Therefore, conventional plasticine is preferable, which easily allows you to work in different techniques. Another option for plasticine modeling can be ball plasticine. Its peculiarity lies in the fact that, unlike ordinary plasticine, which is boring to many children, it is something unusual that allows you to make various crafts and applications, it is lighter in volume, it freezes in air and does not allow the craft to change during storage. under temperature changes, as is typical of ordinary plasticine. When working with it, you can use additional tools that will give a shape, it is easy to attach to it, does not require rolling in shape, like ordinary plasticine, and is applied evenly. You can work with this type of plasticine from a very young age. Another type is the mass for modeling, which also goes well with ball plasticine, easily crumples in the hands and, when applied to additional material (paper, glass, photo frames, etc.), is applied more evenly, and when dried, it looks like a plastic mass . But the choice of material for modeling still depends on the social and financial situation of the parents who support the activities of their child. In a mass school, the socio-economic situation of children is very different. Therefore, the main material for modeling will be ordinary plasticine, which parents with any material wealth can afford to purchase, which will not cause envy and feelings of disappointment in the child. For individual lessons, or classes where everyone in the group will have the same material, it is possible to work with any type of plasticine.

Secondly, for young children it is necessary to set goals that they must achieve when completing the task. For adults, goals are set more transparent, since their abstract thinking is so well developed that it does not require special additional conditions. For young children, the model to which they will aspire is important. Primary schoolchildren do not yet have developed abstract thinking; transduction still prevails in their thinking, which often leads to errors. Therefore, when completing the task, some kind of model is needed, on which younger students will rely. An art therapy lesson is not a labor lesson, where we give a clear model that the child needs to aspire to, our goal is to give a specific task and several options for solving it. For example, the technique of smearing plasticine on cardboard on which the contour is applied. The color is not important to us, the child chooses it himself, the thickness of the layer is not important, we will not evaluate it, we will just see how developed the motor skills of the hand are and, depending on the goal set for ourselves, we can adjust the thickness of the smeared layer. It is important that the child himself finds suitable options for himself when completing the task. By giving different options for fulfilling the set goal, we thereby prepare the ground for the development of the creative and abstract-logical thinking of the child. The younger student himself, relying on the goal, sets tasks for its solution.

Thirdly, these are the tasks that are implemented during the art therapy session using plasticine:

Development of motor skills;
Development of color perception;
Ability to mix different colors;
Development of the ability to work with geometric shapes;
Formation of skills in working with volume and plane;
Development of abstract-logical operations;
Work with different psychological states (stress, anxiety, insecurity, loneliness, aggression, conflict situations)
Plasticine techniques:

Drawing
Application
Creation of bas-reliefs
Creation of mosaics, stained-glass windows
Work with glass and glass containers
Working with additional materials (wire, thread, cereals, natural materials, etc.)
For the development of motor skills, rolling plasticine into an application, creating a figure from individual pre-prepared geometric shapes, drawing with plasticine are suitable. For children of older school age, additional materials can be used when working with plasticine, which require a developed hand and a certain skill. The topic of the lesson is chosen depending on the task set by the psychologist, on the situation that led to working with plasticine, and not with other types of visual means. If our task is to develop motor skills of the hand, to teach how to work with shape and color, then one topic is chosen, for working with aggression, stress, anxiety, the topics can be completely different, or overlap, complementing each other.

When working with stress and aggression, a psychologist may encounter a situation where the child refuses to work with this material, considering it aesthetically unacceptable (dirty hands, remains under the nails, etc.).

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