Autism on Stage

Dramatic Arts Programs for Kids

with ASDs Are Sweeping the Nation

T
he autism community has witnessed
an extraordinary surge in theater
arts programs for kids with spectrum
conditions. Afterschool workshops, summer
camps, and thespian clubs have sprung up
in numbers across the country, ranging from
Cindy Scheider’s Acting Antics, which boasts
an extensive list of workshops housed in
a hip, converted barn-studio in Glenmore,
Pennsylvania, to Elaine Hall’s Los Angeles-
based Miracle Project. Hall’s work put
autistic children and their gifts for music and
performance on the map as the subject of
the Emmy-award winning HBO documentary
Autism: The Musical.
Educators and therapists are abuzz with
the parallels theater-based programs have—
and in some instances even vie with— in
relation to traditional comprehensive special
education programs. All you have to do
is translate ed speak into stage speak to
begin to see the uncanny resemblances.
Physical therapy? That’s movement class.
Speech therapy? Voice and diction. Scene
study? Get ready for this: your good, old-
fashioned social skills group! And the best
part of all, theater-based programming is
less likely to expose its participants to one
of the shortcomings of our educational
and service provision systems: professional
jargon and the resulting objectification of
individuals with disabilities, which all too
often permeates the environments they live
and learn in.
The past several years have also witnessed
growth in research on the benefits of the
dramatic arts for children with disabilities,
providing us with insight into how they
have been used to support emotional
and behavioral challenges (Widdows,
1996; Jackson & Bynum, 1997), provide
successful settings for peer integration and
inclusion (Bayliss & Dodwell, 2004), increase
ISSUE 30 2009 REPRINTED WITH KIND PERMISSION © THE AUTISM FILE www.autismfile.com | THE AUTISM FILE
Elizabeth Nickrenz and Genevieve Cassagrande
with Adelaide, storytelling
Genevieve Cassagrande and Valerie Paradiz with
after school students, developing characters
Elizabeth Nickrenz with Adelaide and Max
(Danielle Ferrante in background)
Valerie Paradiz, Elizabeth Nickrenz and after school
students, listening to a workshop on improvisation
VALERIE PARADIZ, PHD
Valerie Paradiz, PhD, is a member of the
editorial board of The Autism File and
a board member of the Autism Society
of America. She develops educational
programmes for children and adults
with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs),
including the Integrated Self Advocacy
(ISA)® curriculum and training series
for educators and therapists who wish
to support individuals with ASDs in
achieving greater ability in self-advocacy.
For more information or to contact
Valerie, visit www.ValerieParadiz.com.
DANIELLE FERRANTE
Danielle Ferrante is employed by
LearningSpring School, a program
designed for students diagnosed on
the autism spectrum. She has worked
for this population for over ten years
while writing and implementing the
Social Skills and Behavior Management
Curriculums used schoolwide. Danielle
is currently pursuing a masters in Mental
Health Counseling and looks forward to
continuing to learn and grow alongside
her students.
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 EDUCATION & THERAPIES
independence (Price & Barron, 1999), and
encourage greater self-awareness (Wright,
2006).
This trend of emerging theater programs
has become so infectious, that in October
2007, Andrew Nelson, a passionate
proponent and developer of dramatic arts
programming at the West Virginia Autism
Training Center at Marshall University,
co-founded the Applied Theatre Research
and Autism Network (ARTRAN). ARTRAN’s
reach is global and has already connected
practitioners with individuals on the
spectrum and their families in India, the
United Kingdom, Australia, Hong Kong,
Singapore, Syria, Canada, and the United
States. “Theater is the perfect forum for
having fun,” says Nelson, “for playing and
discovering in a structured way.” Add to
this his beliefs that “theater artists are
usually open-minded” and the “theater
itself is generally an environment of comfort
and acceptance,” and you’ve crossed two
important hurdles in creating a successful
program in autism education.
Like the members of ARTRAN, the
authors of this article have also been hard at
work developing theater arts programs for
kids with ASDs. It all began in 2003, when
I (Valerie Paradiz, author and educational
consultant) initiated the School for Autistic
Strength Purpose and Independence
in Education (ASPIE), a full-day school
program for middle and high school students
diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome and
related conditions in the Onteora Central
School District, which is near my home in
historic Woodstock, New York. I had been
a writer and educator for nearly 15 years,
teaching creative writing, literature, and
foreign language at the postsecondary
level at Bard College, a liberal arts college
in upstate New York. In 2002, I published a
memoir titled Elijah’s Cup (Jessica Kingsley
Publishers) that told the story of life with
my son, Elijah Wapner, and our involvement
in the emerging self-advocacy community
among people with autism. But when Elijah,
who was classified autistic at age three, had
a crisis in his final year of elementary school,
I began devoting myself to education and
advocacy for students and adults on the
spectrum, including such projects as the
ASPIE School.
Like my son, I am also an individual
diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome. I
114 THE AUTISM FILE | www.autismfile.com REPRINTED WITH KIND PERMISSION © THE AUTISM FILE ISSUE 30 2009
was evaluated only five years ago, so my
awareness of my spectrum status didn’t
happen until well into my adult life. As
I directed the ASPIE School and trained
teachers and therapists in the fundamental
educational philosophy that students on the
spectrum should have safe, open forums for
understanding and exploring their strengths
and challenges, Elijah attended classes
there. The school offered the New York
State Regents curriculum, as well as original
curricula and therapeutic supports specific
to the needs of kids with ASDs.
At that time, I developed and taught a
class in self-advocacy, which I have since
refined into a comprehensive training
series with curricular materials for teachers,
therapists and students (Integrated Self
Advocacy®). Another unique programmatic
element was ASPIE’s alternative physical
education program. I was weary of the
adaptive PE classes I had seen Elijah trudge
through over the years. Such programs
seemed to promote the idea that fun and
imagination aren’t components of physical
activity.
That’s when Howard
Moody (right) arrived
on the scene. There
couldn’t have been
a better match for
my ideal of a PE
teacher for ASD kids.
The minute Howard
walked into a room,
kids just wanted to
jump on him and horse around. He’s one of
those people who have a naturally playful
aura. Howard was the co-originator of the
Adventure Game Theater, an innovative,
drama-based program that emphasizes non-
competitive group play, social relatedness,
and character development through
improvisational technique. His work spans
25 impressive years developing programs
for schools, corporations and non-profit
organizations. When I met him in 2003,
his Adventure Game Theater was thrilling
parents and capturing the imaginations
of neurotypical kids across the Northeast
region of the United States. “It’s hard to
get people to play,” Howard says, “because
kids and adults have been so turned off by
team games, especially by the time they get
to high school.” Parents and professionals
see this problem quite often in kids on the
autism spectrum, but for additional reasons.
Students might lack the motor coordination,
processing speed, and upper body strength
to fully enter into traditional team games,
leaving them feeling inadequate, left out, or
disinterested in physical activity. And yet,
Howard points out, “students with ASDs still
have such playful curiosity.” His enthusiasm
is infectious, and his skill at motivating
others through safe, inclusive games and
role-play is stunning to witness.
Together, Howard and I worked at
adapting his Adventure Game model,
bringing it to kids attending the ASPIE
School. He began by leading weekly
workshops in PE class, guiding students
through the basics of improv and imaginative
play. He moved on to simple lessons in
understanding the fundamentals of battling
with safe, foam swords and casting spells
with magic wands. Throughout each
workshop, objectives in social thinking and
reading nonverbal cues were embedded to
make learning such skills fun and concrete.
With time, students were creating their
own fictional personas and learned how to
embody characters in costume. They often
modeled their characters on heroes and
villains in their favorite video games, fantasy
novels, or Yugio cards.
The workshops built upon themselves to
the culminating Adventure Game, a quest
story enacted by the students, replete
with giants, monsters, wizards, kings, and
queens played by some of Howard’s former
students, who had founded a non-profit arts
education organization called Wayfinder/
Adventure Game, Inc. His young protégés
also assisted in developing the narrative
itself, an original, theatrical sketch, written
specifically for the kids participating in the
program. The ASPIE students came alive,
taking on fantastic roles in the quest story
that unfolded before them. The remarkable
thing about this kind of theater is that
it appeals to autistic kids’ sensibilities,
particularly those who enjoy fantasy and
video gaming. Young adolescents who never
had the pleasure of letting go and hamming
it up suddenly felt they could do so. They
seemed to lose their self-consciousness,
becoming evil ogres and fairies, taking risks
socially through their characters to discover
newfound confidence. Most of all, their
sense of joy and community spilled over into
the everyday.
 After three years of cutting-edge
programming, the ASPIE School sadly
lost funding and had to close its doors.
This led me to co-found the Open Center
for Autism with Sarah Borris, who had
worked closely with me as Manager of
Programs at the ASPIE School. The Open
Center carried on the tradition of theater
arts programming for kids with ASDs,
collaborating with Howard Moody and
Wayfinder/Adventure Game, Inc., and
offering summer camps and workshops
in Kingston, New York. When I was called
away to consult at schools in New York
City, Sarah Borris took the helm of the
Open Center, directing the organization
as well as overseeing its activities and
offerings. “The center touched two
communities,” says Sarah, “the ASD
community and the Wayfinder community.
It also filled a void. There was nothing for
kids on the spectrum to do in the summer.”
Under her direction, Sarah was able to
expand the reach of the theater camps
to four surrounding counties and attract
families from as far away as Long Island
and New York City.
Like Andrew Nelson of ARTRAN,
who says it’s important to “substantiate
the field” of theater-based education
through research, I wanted the exciting,
collaborative programming that was
happening in our upstate New York
community to be documented and
validated. That’s when I introduced
Elizabeth Nickrenz, a researcher and PhD
candidate at the University of Chicago in
the Department of Comparative Human
Development, to the staff of the Open
Center programs. Elizabeth’s background
is in anthropology and clinical psychology,
making her observations on this niche of
autism education particularly unique. “What
makes the work so fascinating for me,” she
says, “is the intersection of best practices
for ASDs with improvisational theater,
particularly the way the norms, values,
practices, and techniques of special ed and
autism experts intersect with improvisation
actors and master storytellers.”
Elizabeth began observing the Open
Center camp programs for her dissertation
research, noting in her data collection “how
these two sets of approaches complement
each other, and, in the moments when
they come into conflict, how they problem
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solve, how the collaboration can lead
to new insights.” The result is genuine
interdisciplinary programming, or, as she
puts it, “each says things that the other
can’t say.” Elizabeth also notes how the
camps expose kids on the spectrum to
“the possibilities for role-playing,” while
providing a space to practice “a wide variety
of repertoires for being in different kinds of
environments.”
By the spring of 2008, I felt enough
had been developed and proven in our
own community to take the collaboration
to new regions. During the ASPIE School
years, I had developed ties with Margaret
Poggi, director of Learning Spring, an
elementary school for students classified
with Asperger’s syndrome, high functioning
autism, PDD, and related conditions,
located in New York City. Learning Spring
had begun in Manhattan as a classroom
pilot within a pre-existing agency, YAI/
NYL. As the program solidified, filling a
gaping need for kids with ASDs in the
New York metropolitan region, dedicated
families decided that it needed to continue.
These founding parents pulled together
all of their resources, making it possible
for Learning Spring Elementary School to
open its doors in 2001. The fledgling school
occupied one tiny floor of a building, with
only three classrooms, a handful of young
teachers, and 24 students. Today, Learning
Spring stands strong with the backing of its
board, enrolling 56 students and employing
approximately 40 staff members. Plans to
expand into the middle school grades in
a newly designed building are slated for
2009.
Since its inception, Learning Spring
School has established a strong educational
philosophy that emphasizes an integrated
curriculum designed to challenge students
individually at their own performance levels.
Using a cooperative learning paradigm,
the needs of the whole child are addressed
by combining academics with the equally
important mastery of social-emotional,
pragmatic language, organizational, and
sensory-motor skills. The school celebrates
students’ strengths, using positive
language and behavior management skills
to capitalize on abilities.
When I approached Learning Spring
School in 2008 with a proposal for an
afterschool pilot, the timing was right.
Danielle Ferrante, director of social
skills programming, explains:
School staff felt that drama and role-
playing activities might provide opportunities
for their students to think more freely.
Flexibility and imagination are often
challenging concepts for children on the
spectrum. My colleagues and I were interested
in finding out whether, through the medium
of drama and the programs Valerie Paradiz
had developed with her colleagues, kids could
arrive at new levels of social competence.
Five students participated in our six-week
pilot. I observed each weekly session along
with rotating staff from the Learning Spring
School. The afterschool staff included the
usual suspects that Valerie had collaborated
with in previous years, including Howard
Moody as a consultant on programmatic
questions and Elizabeth Nickrenz, who
designed a research project to track student
participation based on interviews with parents
and school personnel. Members of Wayfinder/
Adventure Game, Inc. staffed the weekly
workshops and, together with Elizabeth and
Valerie, wrote a curriculum that combined the
core concepts of the Adventure Game with
therapeutic approaches and strategies specific
to the needs of kids with ASDs.
Genevieve Cassagrande, one of the
founders of Wayfinder/Adventure Game,
Inc., led each week’s workshop. A recent
graduate of theater education at Marymount
Manhattan College in New York City,
she had also been one of Howard’s first
campers. Genevieve’s gift for conveying
how imagination can be fun was welcoming
and appealing. The first day she walked
into the room, our students were rapt and
immediately willing to participate. If only
you could bottle Genevieve’s energy and
enthusiasm! In addition to her spunk, her gift
in communicating with kids on the spectrum
in a concrete, structured manner captured
both their hearts and attention.
The pilot began in March and ended in
June, just before the end of the school year.
Students met each Tuesday after school
from 2:30–5:00 pm for what might seem
like a long afternoon following a full day of
academics at school. Yet the families, in their
interviews with Elizabeth Nickrenz, spoke of
their children’s eager anticipation of Tuesdays
and the activities that awaited them in the
afterschool program. As Genevieve and the
Wayfinder/Adventure Game, Inc. staff moved
through each week’s workshop, they followed
115
 EDUCATION & THERAPIES
the basic structure Howard Moody had
initiated at the ASPIE School and that had
been refined at the Open Center. In addition
to theater-based lessons on imaginative
play, improvisation, character development,
sword fighting, and using magic, activities
were geared to encourage eye contact
(referencing), social interaction, turn-taking,
problem solving, coordination, and teamwork.
Meanwhile, the students seemed unaware
that a skill was being taught, because it had
been introduced in a manner that did not
make them self-conscious. They genuinely
enjoyed the experience. As students learned
these skills in the afterschool sessions, I was
able to follow through on some of the social
discoveries they had made, such as identifying
common interests they shared with peers.
During the school day, in social skills class, I
tapped into these discoveries, using them to
build and strengthen relationships.
The afterschool staff also used teaching
techniques to foster an environment of
confidence, offering a delicate combination
of direct teaching and personal relatedness
to engage students in a loosely structured
environment. “I know you are hungry for
snack,” Genevieve would say to a student who
was fatigued or wished to leave an activity.
“Right now, it is time to play. C’mon, I’ll try
it with you!” This type of modeling, coupled
with an energetic, “can do” attitude, made
the students feel comfortable about trying
new things.
Use of visual supports was another key
strategy, including social stories, written or
displayed schedules, visual timers, photos,
journaling, and videotaping. “This is what we
are doing now,” a staff member would say in a
matter-of-fact tone, referring to the schedule
posted on the wall without a hint of judgment.
“Snack will be after the next game.” To help
reduce anxiety for some students, timing cues
would be given, such as, “We will finish this
activity when the timer goes off.”
As we approached the grand finale of
the afterschool pilot, the Adventure Game,
which took place on a Sunday in New York’s
Central Park, I dovetailed on the afterschool
workshops, offering students social stories
during school hours to explain the “rules”
for the final event of the pilot. The stories
assisted students in feeling prepared for the
day’s itinerary without leaving questions open
or unanswered. Such details as times to meet,
the staff and people attending the Adventure
Game, activities that students would do, and
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the time events were to start and end were
features of the social story. These supports
helped ease their anxiety.
Learning Spring School also uses photos
and video as common teaching tools in
classrooms and therapeutic settings, which
I turned to as a means of integrating
afterschool experiences with students’
day-to-day routines. Because they are
faced with so many negative experiences in
their lives, it’s sometimes hard for kids on
the spectrum to maintain perspective and
remember the good experiences, as well. In
this way, I showed them photos and video
clips to reinforce the positive moments and
experiences they had had, causing them to
redirect their focus away from the negative to
achieve enhanced self-regulation.
Each week, the students looked forward to
their workshops in the dramatic arts and were
even overheard bragging to classmates about
the program and how much fun it was. By the
end of the six-week pilot, Learning Spring
staff reported that the kids were more willing
to try new things. In general, they seemed
to be more relaxed and were able to be silly
and let themselves go, with fewer signs of
anxiety. Additionally, they seemed to have
become more creative in their input in school
and showed greater flexibility in thinking by
viewing things more in the gray area rather
than the usual black and white.
Other benefits included the bonds that
participating students formed and their
relationships carrying over into the school
day. Remarkably, fellow classmates who had
not taken part in the theater arts pilot seemed
to respond to the enthusiasm of their peers,
who would rally and encourage them to try
new things, sharing some of the strategies
they had learned after school.
The afterschool pilot made a significant
contribution to the Learning Spring
community, which has since initiated theater
arts-based programming and strategies both
in its general curriculum and in its growing
afterschool program. In an academic setting, it
is difficult to employ this type of approach to
teach social skills. Theater-based experiences,
however, provide a rich arena for introducing
-- and more importantly --practicing, these
necessary skills. As researcher Elizabeth
Nickrenz comments, “learning to improvise
and act in a fantastic, unfamiliar world makes
sense [for individuals with ASDs] as a means
of learning and practicing social roles in a
deliberate way.”
Genevieve Cassagrande and Jane,
character interviews
Theater arts programming is swiftly
becoming a new addition to the promising
educational methodologies that have
emerged in the past decade for students with
autism spectrum conditions. Still more new
programs and events are in development
across the country and ready to launch. In
the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul,
look for the Autism Society of Minnesota’s
(AuSM) recently formed partnership with
Upstream Arts, a non-profit agency that
seeks to enhance the lives of adults and
youth with disabilities by fostering creative
communication and social independence
through the power of arts education.
Programs will begin for kids aged 8-16 in
January 2009.
Also in January, keep an eye out for the
release of Keri Bowers’ latest film, ARTS.
Bowers, a disability advocate and filmmaker,
has produced her third documentary
(following the acclaimed productions Normal
People Scare Me and The Sandwich Kid),
this time delving into the drama, writing,
painting, dance, and music of individuals
with disabilities.
If you don’t have access to a program
in your community and would like to
explore one, consider attending the Autism
Society of America’s Annual Conference
in St. Charles, Illinois, in July 2009 where
ARTRAN and Valerie Paradiz will be hosting
a symposium on theater arts and ASDs. In
addition to the pre-conference symposium,
ARTRAN will provide workshops for kids
on the spectrum through the conference’s
childcare program, culminating in a theatrical
performance on-site in the hotel’s theater.
Resources and Contact Information:
Valerie Paradiz, PhD: www.ValerieParadiz.com
Learning Spring School: http://learningspring.org
Howard Moody: www.HowardMoody.com
ARTRAN: http://www.autismtheatre.org
Photography CLAIRE MARIE LOUGE