When bee is for breaking through

Elisabeth Tarica 
THE AGE February 21, 2011

LATE on Wednesday afternoon: fat drops of rain slice through the humid air as a storm closes in on a quaint strip of shops in Mont Albert. In a room above the old-style fruit shop, the weather is anything but menacing. It is fine and sunny and Alex is busy being a bee in a park.

Facing drama teacher Malena Martens, Alex is describing how he feels about being a bee and how others in the park react as he approaches — using the weather as a metaphor for his emotional state. "It is sunny and they are frightened," he says of the crowd as he buzzes around loudly, his wide smile giving away his glee.

It may look like a lot of fun but this role play has been carefully designed to teach Alex, who has autism, valuable social lessons. Learning how to recognise and express his feelings through body language, facial expressions and tone of voice is a powerful tool for Alex and others who don't have the skills to articulate their feelings or even identify them.

Each week, Alex spends 55 minutes at Voice and Movement's Drama for Everyday Life program learning what others instinctively know. "It helps by taking the mystery out of what's going on around them," says Angelica Rose who developed the program eight years ago.

"A lot of our students have difficulty in recognising non-verbal cues so we have developed games and exercises to teach students how to recognise and express them appropriately, and how to read different situations. These are the type of things that come naturally to us but children with autism have great difficulty with."

Ms Rose and her team work with children, teenagers and adults with high-functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Asperger’s Syndrome and students experiencing social difficulties such as shyness. Many of these young people find school challenging as they have difficulty making friends and lack confidence in the schoolyard. Some learn to disguise their problems so that the disability is not immediately obvious.

While most people have heard of autism, the neurodevelopmental disorder is not well understood, mostly because every child with an autism spectrum disorder has very different symptoms. By definition, people with ASDs struggle with social interaction and communication, and with adapting to changes in their environment or daily routine. While some have little or no language, others can have perfectly good language skills but have difficulty engaging in conversations and reading body language.

Using drama, role-play and theatre sports allows them to? act out everyday scenarios — both good and bad — to build self-confidence, social skills and an awareness of others around them. "Drama is about communicating through body language, voice, facial expression, gesture and words," Ms Rose says. "It's also about recognising and reacting to these signs in others. For students with autism spectrum disorders, these skills are vital in developing confident self-expression and active participation in social interactions."

Having a greater range of appropriate social skills means such children are able to handle social situations and relationships more confidently. "Take a greeting for example," she says. "We may have a student who would forget to greet people or not greet their friends when they walk in to the schoolyard, so we break down the component of a greeting, which consists of things like saying hello, using eye contact, smiling, using the person's name, maybe a wave as well and then practice."

The coaching extends to conversation skills, how to build friendships, different types of relationships, appropriate physical boundaries and good playing rules. "For the younger ones we focus on good playing skills around turn taking, what to do when the rules get changed, when things go wrong or when someone else isn't obeying the rules, how to join in that play and how to leave the play in a friendly way because we get some students who might get sick of the play and just walk off. Those kinds of things can be confusing."

With a background in arts, drama and dance, Ms Rose says the program grew out of a self-confidence course she developed. "One of my dance students had a daughter who was autistic and I started doing some work with her and realised that what I was doing with the drama program could be adapted to this little girl's needs," she says. "A couple of parents heard about it and all of a sudden a connection was made and I started doing research in the field and found that I had a knack for working with these types of students."

While most students are young, Ms Rose finds many adults in their 20s and 30s, who have been undiagnosed, turning to her for help with oral presentations, public speaking and job interview skills. "They gain a lot because these kinds of programs were not available 20 years ago," she says. "We work with a lot of 18 to 25-year-olds dealing with workplace scenarios by helping them to know how to speak appropriately to a manager and what is appropriate in terms of relating to a colleague."

Using drama to help people on the autism spectrum is quite new. Research shows young people with autism benefit from such performance opportunities, which can unlock them from an isolated world. Amanda Richdale, of the Olga Tennison Autism Research Centre at La Trobe University, is evaluating the effectiveness of Ms Rose's program. Preliminary findings from the study are positive. "It shows that there were some improvements in children's behaviour, that program goals were largely met and that parents generally approved of the program," Associate Professor Richdale says.

Ms Rose is thrilled that through drama she is markedly altering the lives of children with autism and helping them make friends. "When parents come back and say to you, 'My eight-year-old has been invited to a birthday party for the very first time', and they're in grade 3 it is an incredible feeling to hear those things . . . it is the best part of the job, it really is."

http://www.theage.com.au/national/education/when-bee-is-for-breaking-through-20110218-1azbn.html 

Article Printed in Autism Victoria’s “Spectrum”, 2004 Susan: Developing Social Skills through Drama

Susan* (10 years) with Asperger's Syndrome began the Drama for Everyday Life Program.
When she first started the program Susan did not want to talk about herself or her feelings. At times she would flatly refuse to participate in certain activities and couldn't be persuaded otherwise. She would sometimes become very frustrated and throw a tantrum.

Susan began the course to assist with self confidence, appropriate self expression and social skills.
As she progressed it was found that Susan enjoyed storytelling and acting out scripts. She participated in developing scripts together. These guided her to resolve "problems", such as, what a character should do when she meets a new girl at school. Susan would then act out the script several times using more appropriate vocal tones, facial expression and body language. Eventually she would act out the scene without scripts.

Through the role plays Susan worked quite intensively with themes of friendship and play. Susan became more open to exploring different possibilities in game playing. She became more tolerant of other children when playing and learned to respond more appropriately to lighthearted teasing and jokes. Her mother described a situation where Susan and another child were playing with a doll. An argument ensued. Instead of going into a tantrum, Susan said that she would let the other child have the doll because their friendship was more important!

Since beginning the program Susan's conversation skills have improved. She developed awareness of other people's contribution in conversations. She began to direct questions towards others and actively listen for a response. A family friend who had not seen Susan for six months was impressed with the improvement in her conversation skills. The family friend noticed that Susan's body language and eye contact reflected a genuine interest in conversing with her.

A large part of the program focused on recognising and appropriately expressing emotions in oneself and others. Susan developed greater ability to recognise basic emotions and has begun to learn about more specific emotions. She has begun to communicate feelings, such as anger and frustration, more effectively. For example: in one class Susan became very frustrated with an exercise, so an opportunity was given to verbalise the problem. The work was then adjusted to assist her better.

Part of the program focused on confident self expression through body language and voice. Susan's schoolteacher noticed that her self confidence improved. She became more willing to contribute in class has shown more effort to interact with schoolmates.

Susan became much calmer and more tolerant of other people. She developed more ability to cope with changes in daily routine. She developed an understanding that other people have needs too. Giving Susan the opportunity to practise social skills in a fun, safe environment has given her the confidence she needed in developing relationships with others.

Drama Program Helps Student with Asperger’s Syndrome

Teaching drama to students with Asperger’s Syndrome may seem like a daunting task, but an innovative program has assisted many students in developing their interpersonal skills.

Over the past six years the Drama for Everyday Life Program has assisted many students in making friends; building self confidence and learning how to express their feelings appropriately. Not only do the students learn skills they normally wouldn’t develop, but they also have fun and meet like-minded peers.

When Peter* (12 yrs, grade 6) first began the program his parents described his behaviour as “erratic” and would easily become “angry and upset”. Peter didn’t want to come to classes initially, however, after persevering his parents noticed some changes.

Mum and Dad said that before doing the program Peter would often explode by crying and shouting when he was feeling overwhelmed. Since doing the program Peter has learnt how to recognise his feelings and use sentences to express how he feels. He can control himself much better now and is able to remain calmer, listen to Mum and Dad and then tell his point of view. Dad described it as Peter being “switched on, rather than off”.

Mum related that in the previous week at bedtime, Peter noticed that he was feeling sick in the stomach and was able to communicate to Mum, “I feel nervous about …..”, and requested a lavender bag to help him calm down.

Peter now hangs out with same age friends at lunchtime and emerges from school smiling with his head held high. Before doing the program Peter rarely thought about his friends outside of school, however now he thinks about how he could help his friends. For example, Peter will now think about giving things that are no longer needed to a friend; in the past the item would have been too special.

Peter now wants to be included in conversations. Though his conversation is still a bit “artificial”, Mum and Dad are really proud that Peter is trying so hard to use his new skills. When Dad arrives home in the evening Peter will now ask him how his day was and even ask some follow up questions. (We are still working on letting Dad have a minute to put his bag and coat down before being questioned!)

In the past, when relatives or family friends arrived at the door Peter used to have to be prompted to greet them, but since doing the program Peter now gets out of his chair, walks to the front door, greets the guests with eye contact and a smile and initiates a conversation, much to his parents’ delight.

Peter has benefited from participating in the program in his friendships, his relationship with parents and family friends. He now looks forward to coming to class and putting his social skills into practice.

* Names have been changed for privacy. 

Angelica Rose B.A. (Drama) runs the Drama for Everyday Life Program, which is specially designed for children, adolescents and adults with autism spectrum disorders.

Voice and Movement
Copyright 2011