In “A true rite of passage: Unusual theater project prepares autistic teens for bar and bat mitzvahs,” James Ricci of the Los Angeles Times describes an unconventional approach to helping children and youths with Autism learn to interact with others. He focuses his story on Elaine Hall and her son, Neal, explaining how Ms. Hall promotes participation in activities leading to bar and bat mitzvah ceremonies.
Hall started the program in October 2006. Working with a group of five children, she and her volunteers taught prayers by having their students sing them, dance them, act them out, and, for the profoundly nonverbal, beat drums to show they were sharing the experience. To teach Hebrew letters, they had the nonverbal children form them with their bodies or bake them as cookies. They had the youngsters make their own yarmulkes and rehearse in Vista del Mar’s sanctuary where they would eventually perform.
Mr. Ricci reports that Ms. Hall drew from Stanley Greenspan’s ideas (Dr. Greenspan champions the “DIR/Floortime” approach to treating children with severe communication and behavior problems) and added a dose of her personal ideas (”It involved her entering Neal’s world and gradually drawing him into hers”). There’s even a hint that another non-verbal youth communicates by typing.
Events and actions are cast as deeply meaningful. And, de rigueur for journalism, there are several quotes from people testifying to the benefits for the participating individuals. Based on Ms. Hall’s work with “The Miracle Project,” a nonprofit theater group for children with disabilities, documentary producers have filmed her efforts with another group of individuals with Autism and plan to broadcast “Autism: The Musical” on HBO in April 2008.
As one might surmise from the extracted quote, the emphasis in Ms. Hall’s training appears to be on the creative. It’s fitting for an area that is near Hollywood. I like the idea of children and youths with disabilities having chances to engage in creative activities. Theater, music, art, and the like are worthwhile, in their own right; they don’t need to justified. In that regard, it is valuable to promote participation in the arts.
Mr. Ricci’s story is written to be heart-felt; it’s not the kind of coverage that should be thought about carefully. But, I did think about it as I read it, and it is also the kind of story that makes me fret. I fear that stories such as this will encourage parents and professionals to seek unconventional interventions, see what they believe, base decisions on inspiration rather than reason and, as a result, deny their children some opportunities that might be far more helpful. Give ‘em the arts, but give ‘em evidence-based therapy, too.
Link to Mr. Ricci’s story.
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My son with high functioning autism participated in a free art and music
camp last summer. The results were amazing. Kids who never made friends before suddenlyad two or three friends by the end. My nine year old has a couple of teens to look up to which is nice because he is in denial about his autism.Without grant funding, the two week day camp would have cost us $1,500. The sad thing is only fifteen spots were available and about fifteen more wanted to be included. I think the professor overseeing the AI certification program and a portion of the camp is doing some research, and it looks like the results will be positive. I appreciate your concern about parents prefering this type of therapy over other therapies, but where I’m from there isn’t any ABA therapy and just one part-time DAN Doctor. We do have a speech camp at the local university and some of our campers particpated in just that. The word that jumped out to me in the story was “volunteer.” I wonder if the program was free. If so that is a great thing as therapies can cost so much. Even the floor time theray in question can cost $300 a month or so and one from my city has to travel 50 minutes to another city to participate. That is why I opt for lower cost summer camps and horse riding therapy. I’ve learned that the more activities I get my son into, the more he improves. Being active isn’t a cure, but it helps. Sorry if there are a lot of typos. I can’t see some of what I’m typing. The comment box flows behind your sidebar.
Julie, thanks for your comment. I’m glad to hear that your children are benefitting from their activities.
I agree that the volunteer nature of the program is encouraging. I’m glad that people have the heart to give to kids with disabilities and their families. As I noted in the post, I also think it’s great to have kids–with or without Autism–engaged in activities across the community. There’s nothing inherently wrong with theater or equestrian activities. I get concerned when they are justified on the basis of inadequate evidence. I can support doing them just because they’re fun, healthy, normal (whatever that is–teehee).
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