Theater as a Teaching Tool for
Students with Special Needs
I am a special education teacher at
a public middle school. Most of my students have mild learning difficulties.
Some are also autistic, while others may have orthopedic impairments, vision or
hearing problems. The students who attend our school come from mostly
blue-collar backgrounds. Many are also first-generation immigrants, and
consequently classified as English language learners. All these needs put my
students at a disadvantage, when it comes to academic success.
Many of my students’ socio-economic
situations are such that they get relatively little support at home for
academics. Either their parents don’t have sufficient education to help them,
or their lifestyle and job requirements preclude such support. Many parents
work multiple jobs to make ends meet. They have trouble attending after-school
meetings with teachers or information meetings about school programs due to job
or child-care issues. Many don’t have a computer or internet access at home,
hence cannot access technology based lessons from home. All this implies that,
while my students may be getting a whole lot of real-world learning at home,
their academic education has to take place at school.
Today’s economy has not affected
just families adversely. It has caused our school district to reallocate
limited funds away from the arts, in favor of core academics. It’s the reality
of the times. Our school did have a drama program; now it’s an after-school
fee-based class. We still have a school band and orchestra, and an art class.
Other schools have similar issues have dealt with them in ways that are similarly
less than ideal.
The benefit of drama for students
with special needs has been well documented. It is an important tool for
children with autism. Autistic students have trouble reading faces,
understanding emotions and interacting socially. Theater arts help them in all
these areas. Students who have trouble with expressive language also benefit
from theater arts. When students have trouble expressing themselves, they do
better when presented with parameters and a framework in which to express
themselves. Carol Grey is a prominent autism researcher who developed the
concept of social stories to provide autistic children with direct instruction
about how to handle any social situation. It uses enactment of the social
situation that is being taught. Such tools are great for any student with
processing disorders. They remember better when they have enacted a scene ahead
of time and know what is expected of them.
I use an acting-based lesson
occasionally. The demands and rigors of sticking to an academic program and a
pacing calendar make it hard for us to take the time to stretch our creative
muscles. One of the standards for my grade-level is a performance standard; so
we choose a short play with few characters and practice for a few days. We then
visit another class and present our play to an audience. This is one of our
most interesting assignments in the whole year. Some students are shy and
resist speaking up; others want to be the center of attention. Some dyslexic
students have difficulty reading the lines, but have developed coping skills.
They just memorize their lines. It is interesting to see how they work through
this assignment. They have a blast creating the props, painting and gluing
them. It is loosely structured time where they get to practice their social
skills. They enjoy it and I wish we could do more such activities. Other
teachers in our school also use theater-based lessons in their classes. One of
the teachers goes a step further and has students come up with their own script
for a certain social situation. Teachers also arrange field trips to play
productions by theater groups to teach appropriate audience behavior- when to
applaud, to talk in whispers, etc.
One class in our school district that
uses theater in a substantial way is the social pragmatics program. This is a
class for high-functioning autistic children who have trouble with social
interactions. Carol Grey’s social stories incorporate the theater arts into the
curriculum to teach social interactions. Students read about appropriate social
behaviors and then watch them being played by other actors. They then act it
out themselves and practice their skills. The social pragmatics curriculum
focuses on reading other peoples’ faces and emotions as well as on how the
students convey their feelings to their audience.
