5th April 2024 • My Family Our Needs

In our second interview for our Autism Acceptance Week 2024 series, we spoke to Sonia Nosheen about how she’s creating visual art to bridge communication gaps and encourage expression.

Driven by a desire to build connections and inspire understanding for everyone, she tells us how art can help non-verbal autistic children and individuals with limited speech capacity express themselves.

1. Can you tell us about your artistic background and what initially inspired you to pursue art as a form of expression?

I wasn’t born artistic and I didn’t grow up being artistic. It was something I stumbled across about six years ago and fell in love with for two reasons.

One is a bit of a personal story; my mum doesn’t speak or read English and when she became unfortunately really unwell, she was given a thick booklet on cancer that she couldn’t read or understand. There were one or two visual images within it that I was able to point to and explain. That was a bit of a breakthrough for me about how communication doesn’t cater for everyone. It’s something that sparked my interest in this. I thought, there’s got to be better ways to talk to a wide range of individuals.

The other reason is my background in healthcare. I witnessed just how busy and complex healthcare is for professionals. They’re overburdened with lots of policies, procedures and words and I thought there had to be a better way to express key messages.

Those are the two turning points that made me want to explore visual arts and communication art in particular.

‘For children who are nonverbal or have limited speech capacity, pictures are great. It’s a different way for them to express themselves, to be able to create a sense of connection without having to use words. It allows them to feel like they’re understood…’

2. How would you describe your artistic style and the themes that often recur in your work?

My overall style is about being simplistic in the visual representation. It’s not about realism. It’s a very simplistic, quite positive and relaxed style of art. A lot of my visuals follow a logical order around the page. It doesn’t jump around and is very image associated. I try to balance words and images.

Things are done digitally and the themes that come through a lot are around wellbeing and communication. I do a lot of pieces around patient safety or patient access to services. Diversity and inclusion come up a lot as a request to draw.

3. Could you walk us through your creative process from conceptualisation to completion of a piece?

I can have reams of words in front of me from research papers or policies and so on. It’s about trying to focus on what is it that matters in this information. When we talk about or use verbal communication, we tend to try and frame every aspect of what’s going on and there are lots of words that don’t mean anything.

So, the process is sitting down with something, going through and thinking, what is it that matters? What is the thing that’s going to connect with people the most and draw them out of some written communication format? Then, I try to pull those key pieces out and understand the wording and how it can be simplified. After getting to the core message and pulling keywords, it’s then a case of word association. I’d read a sentence or two that I pulled out and see what image comes to mind. If it was something around growth or development, I think of a plant so that might be the image that goes with it.

The process tends to be to simplify the words, extract the image association, ask what I see when I think of it and then sketch something out and bring it to life.

‘Art bridges that gap where words or communication aren’t possible’.

4. In your opinion, could art be useful as a form of communication for non-verbal autistic children and those with limited speech and language capabilities?

For children who are nonverbal or have limited speech capacity, pictures are great. It’s a different way for them to express themselves, to be able to create a sense of connection without having to use words. It allows them to feel like they’re understood because if they can’t verbally communicate, it can be really frustrating for someone and it causes more of a disconnect.

Art bridges that gap where words or communication aren’t possible. Images are there to fill that void and allow them to connect differently. Healthcare professionals often use smiley faces for children to express themselves without feeling vulnerable or delving into what it is they’re feeling. It also means that healthcare professionals aren’t jumping to conclusions or trying to draw out something that isn’t there. So, it’s a really powerful mechanism to connect.

‘Images are a lot more patient. They’ll wait for you. They’re there. They’re not moving on, while words come and go’.

5. Have you had any feedback from anyone about using your art as a communicative tool?

One hospital example was in the NICU service for premature babies and the journey that families have to go through. It’s really difficult, so we did a visual communication aid around what they could expect and access because it’s an overwhelming time for them.

It’s about communication and trying to bridge that gap where people might not be able to express themselves. The feedback has been about how it’s something really simple on one page that they’re able to connect with. They just get it. When they look at it, they feel more confident and have more of a connection. It’s a lot easier to process than a wordy document.

Images are a lot more patient. They’ll wait for you. They’re there. They’re not moving on, while words come and go.

6. Do you think these visual aids should be in any other settings to help people?

It is in a lot of other settings and it’s a lot more advanced in education. But it’s about thinking about the purpose of the art, what it’s there for and how it’s going to help and aid others to communicate, connect and create understanding.

Art can be a powerful tool that’s used in a more meaningful way. I think it needs to be more mainstream in education in particular and not something on the side. It needs to be front and centre.

‘…be open to art, believe in yourself and have confidence that you can do something with art…’

7. We love your workplace art series! Could you tell us about your inspirations?

Being able to have a visual reminder about how to look after yourself, slow down and have that visual presence where you work is something that could help you remember that there are things you can do to help and support yourself.

From more of an autistic or nonverbal communication perspective, having a visual aid that’s always present could be helpful. In a space where you can just look up and be grounded and reconnected is a powerful mechanism to have. There are so many different formats like a photograph or something else visual that can be enough to keep you grounded.

8. We’ve talked about using art for communication purposes. How could art be useful for individuals on the autistic spectrum or those who may struggle with verbal communication to express themselves and how could families incorporate art into their lives?

Sometimes when people hear the word art, they can feel a sense of disconnect or conclude that they’re not artistic. Art can be really simple. It doesn’t need to be complex – it just takes time and practice. Sometimes, it’s their mindset holding them back. So, be open to art, believe in yourself and have confidence that you can do something with art rather than thinking, I don’t know what to do, this is stupid or I don’t understand it.

There are lots of different visual aids and methods you can use. Whilst my art is particularly around doodling and it’s a fun, cartoonish style, there are lots of different styles. It’s about finding what’s right for you. Sometimes it’s about being patient. It takes time. It doesn’t happen overnight. Just believe that you’ll get there and don’t be put off if it doesn’t work the first time.

9. What do you hope viewers take away from consuming your art?

The takeaway is just a sense of connection. Sometimes people can send a message telling me they connect with my art and it builds their confidence. If there’s something presented in a complex way and they understand the simple way I’ve recreated it, that’s exactly what I want them to get out of my work.

10. Do you have any upcoming projects or new ideas you want to share with us?

I’ve just finished a freedom to speak up project around what it takes for people to be confident and speak up in the workplace. Again, it’s about expression and making people comfortable to be able to open up and build relationships.

I’ve also just about finished a draft for medical prescribers who are working with neurodivergent people and how they should communicate with them. It explores what good communication means and how can you adapt your methods so that you’re meeting neurodivergent people’s needs.

The final thing that I’ve been talking about for such a long time is a digital doodling course so people can learn to do what I do on the iPad and be able to express themselves and hopefully create their own connections as well. I’m hoping this will be live within the next three months.

11. Is there anything else you’d like to add?

I work with visual art. A fantastic example I saw was when I worked with a healthcare provider who was looking at improving services for children with cancer. They got the children to express themselves through drawing something visual about what matters to them. They shared those images back with me and it was just such a powerful thing to see their expression through art, what it meant, what it showed and what mattered to them. It was such a useful aid.

Then, to be able to create something that reflected what their needs were just recognises the power of drawing and doodling. It was a good experience.

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