Drama for Autism

Drama can change the world! I said it before and I’ll say it again. It can change the world! As a grown woman, although when my students ask me about my age I always say I’m 17, Drama has constantly reminded me to be brave and to be myself through the tough times in my life. If the subject helped me immensely, imagine what it could do to children on the autistic spectrum.

So, as Maria from The Sound of Music once said, let us start at the very beginning. Firstly, what is Autism and how does it manifest itself? Autism is a group of brain development disorders that affects the ability to communicate with others, verbally and non-verbally. This affects children, and adults, of all races and nationalities. Secondly, Autism is not the same in every child. It’s not one shoe fits all. Autistic children show different signs of Autism so these cannot be handled in the same manner. However, having said that, there are still common behaviours found in most cases.

From my experience, I always feel that autistic children struggle in social situations. They are the ones who get left out when others are playing on the playground, they are the ones who struggle to communicate with each other and they are the ones who find it difficult to express themselves resulting in stressful, and sometimes violent, tantrums. The latter is the dagger through my heart!

Drama is a fantastic approach that helps autistic children express themselves. It challenges them to communicate with other friends in a fun and imaginative setting. I tend to do this through script work, pair or group work, and improvisation. Delivering a line from a script is no different than asking a friend to play. The only difference is that, during play, the child could easily choose not to interact and stay within his/her comfort zone but, through drama, communication is encouraged by other students. This is an incredibly precious skill transferable in most real-life situations.

Now, believe it or not, and I might contradict myself here, some people with Autism can communicate perfectly well but deeply struggle when in social situations, like when they're asked to give presentations at university, attend a job interview, or when invited to a social event where they can't escape mingling. So, some children might have a set of phrases to turn to when they feel socially awkward.

Think of one of Sheldon Cooper's famous lines: “Can I offer you a hot beverage?” It's a perfect excuse to get him away from facing awkward moments. In fact, he is reminding me of another autistic trait: his love of routines. If you break an autistic child’s routine, it can easily set them off. Cooper would say: “You’re in my spot!” or, my absolute favourite, *knock on the door* Penny! *knock on the door* Penny! *knock on the door* Penny! Have you ever seen Sheldon knock on a door twice? Of course not! He’ll throw a hissy fit! And this happens because routines are safe. They are always the same and there are no surprises. The minute a child faces a change in everyday routine, their emotions and tempers change simply because they are not accustomed to doing things differently. It’s not their routine and it's not what gives them comfort. So, can you blame them for hating change?

This is where Drama comes in! My Drama lessons have structure, or else my mind would go mad, but I teach in a way they don’t realise there's structure. Children are constantly being challenged, without them knowing it, whilst encouraging that break in their routine.

Let me give you an example. My Drama lessons start with a warm-up, however, these are never the same. Sometimes, I decide to focus more on vocal exercises and, on other days, I would want to focus more on physical warm-ups instead. At the end of the lesson, we'd engage in a cool-down exercise to help them relax and feel calm. I don’t want to give you back your children all hyped-up and excited. You’re welcome!

So, you might ask me, what happens between the warm-up and the cool-down? Simple answer! All the fun in the world! I find improvisation is the sweet medicine. Autistic children could easily act out a play by reading lines from a script but when coming up with speech and conversations on the spot, with no time to think, that is when the magic happens. That is where their communication skills are working overtime, routines break and they’re not relying on their back up phrases.

They might think they're improvising a scene about a cat and a dog playing with a goldfish, in the living room, when I decide to introduce an African elephant to their exercise. I can already imagine the panic on their faces, giving me funny looks, and telling me “But that makes no sense!!”. In this scene, their thought processes were going in one direction: focusing on the cat, the dog, and the goldfish but the change I introduce sets them in a new environment. All this is happening whilst they're using their verbal skills, imagination, and body language to work out why the elephant is in the room! See, I told you, it's magic!! So, the next time they find themselves wanting to play with a friend, the conversation will happen with much less effort simply because they managed to communicate with each other to discover that the elephant got lost on his to Africa. These basic skills will eventually result in easy, comfortable, and successful interactions in real life.

Eventually, when verbal communication becomes easier for them, children can start to focus on expressing themselves using body language and facial expressions. They would also have the ability to read such language from others. The ultimate challenge would be to put verbal, physical, and facial expressions together. To achieve this, I start with separate exercises focusing on body language, verbal cues, and facial expressions separately and over time incorporate them together. Nowadays, communication is key and this can only improve through training and practice.

Before I end it here, here is one last thought. If they're interested in attending Drama lessons, go ahead and sign them up, BUT do not force them or else it can work against them. Instead of experiencing the joys that Drama has to offer, they might feel anxious and extremely self-conscious which leads to the children hating the subject. Trust me on this!

If you want to have a chat about this, drop me a message, give me a call, text me or send me a pigeon. I’ll be waiting with a notebook in hand and a cup of tea in the other.

Talk later

Ex