The author has seen remarkable developments in children with autism in their theater class setting over their decades of experience. Children are communicating with each other about their performances, thinking about how the audience perceives them, and making judgments about emotional expressions. While routines are important, the classes also provide opportunities for creative expression and original communication that the author does not see elsewhere.

1. Hi Becky,
I see remarkable things from the children in this theater class setting which
I have never seen, in all my years of working with young children who have
autism (more than two decades). I have seen two young children
whispering to each other about what they are going to do on stage--not just
once but routinely because that is how they saw the acting buddies decide
what to do and say. I have seen children learn to think about what the
audience hears and sees and use that information. I have seen children
able to arrange five acting buddies in a row from least "angry" to most
"angry". They stink at acting slightly more angry but they see it. I have
seen kids try to decide if it would look more sad if the actor put his
shoulder down or put his hands on his face while pretending to cry. It
seems that some children with autism can suddenly become self-
conscious during acting classes, and that is both an interesting
development and a little hard. We use so much routine in our classes that
the kids can easily pretend to do acting classes at home and they do. But
within these routines, there are many opportunities for kids to create their
own characters, try their own ideas, and play in original ways--and they do
more original communication on stage than I every see in any other
setting.
Good luck with your work,
Tahirih
--
I play for a living.
Tahirih Bushey M.A. C.C.C.
Speech and Language Pathologist
Web Site: autismgames.org
Blog Site: autismgames.blogspot.com