This project is a collaboration with the Illinois Art Station, a non-profit group that provides visual art experiences to children, youth, and families throughout the Bloomington-Normal community. As part of their mission, the Illinois Art Station provides a 12-week art class to local preschools. Our research group observes these art classes in order to gain information about preschoolers’ development, including:
the development of social-emotional skills and how participation in an art class may facilitate further development of these skills
handedness and fine motor skills, and how participation in an art class may provide opportunities which contribute to the further development of fine motor skills
Students who work on this project spend time in the preschools collecting data, organizing data in the lab, and scoring preschoolers’ art work. They have also been busy analyzing data and preparing data for submission to conferences.