Early in my first months of teaching my students with Autism, I discovered that hula hoops held a special power. One day at the end of class, we’d been working hard on structured activities with variable success: lots of cajoling of individual students, with them alternately joining and wandering away from our activities. Exhausted, I […]
Entries Tagged as 'Autism'
Defining success
November 23rd, 2011 · Comments Off · Autism
Success is defined differently when I’m teaching dance to my students with Autism. Given the very unique ways in which these students interact, there’s a feeling of victory when a student joins me in what I’m modeling, allows me to help, follows my lead, works with me. If every one in our small class moves […]
Lest anyone think it’s a straight path…
April 4th, 2011 · 2 Comments · Autism
I’ve had some pretty consistent successes, in my 2nd year of dance for students with Autism. But there are days… Friday last week, the class fell apart. There were a lot of absences, from colds & such, so only 5 students out of the usual 8 were even available for class. Of the 5, only […]
Stunning silences, astonishing pauses
March 30th, 2011 · 5 Comments · Autism
So here’s the post that’s been in my head for a couple of months, even though I’ve been too busy to get it down. Now’s a good time for it, since I’ve been reflecting today on what it was like when I started teaching students with Autism. The stunning silence happened back in January. I […]
Structure: students with Autism
March 30th, 2011 · 1 Comment · Autism
Still thinking of how I got started teaching dance to my students with Autism… I was asked how to structure a class or lesson. But for the first year-and-a-half, the structure of my classes for the autistic students was totally different from my other lessons for kindergarten through 5th graders. I mostly alternated structured activities […]
Getting acquainted: students with Autism
March 30th, 2011 · 2 Comments · Autism
Not much time, but I must reply to a comment left on my blog… “I will be teaching a dance class for children with Autism starting next week. There will be 6 kids ages 6-10. Honestly, I have been attempting to plan the first class, but unsure where to start. Some children are fairly high […]
Children with autism: dancing together
January 18th, 2011 · 6 Comments · Autism, Uncategorized
They arrive every day, my students with autism, barefoot & ready. I don’t always have a great idea of how I’m helping them, but it’s no longer so daunting as it was at first! We’ve come a long way. Each of my 2 classes is a little older this year & more experienced with school. […]
Turning corners
May 18th, 2010 · 4 Comments · Autism, Uncategorized
It’s the end of the year. Although I’m too busy to be blogging about it, we’re turning a lot of corners! “Can we practice our part of the dance during recess?” Corner turned: kids are taking ownership in their upcoming performance. “What are we going to wear?” Corner turned: they’re starting to think like an […]
Dancing – and constantly growing — with autism
March 31st, 2010 · 10 Comments · Autism, Uncategorized
OK, so today has been my days for multiple appointments: doctors, dentist, Apple one-to-one, exercise, lecture. And in between, in the fractional hours when it’s easier to stop at a cafe than to drive home, I’ve been collecting my thoughts… Next week I’ll start my 7th month of teaching dance to 16 students with autism, […]
Mark likes dance…
February 7th, 2010 · 2 Comments · Autism, Uncategorized
…which is not readily apparent when he’s in dance class. Mark is a kindergartener with autism, in a class of eight non-verbal 5- and 6-year-olds who are also not very responsive to visual cues yet. He rarely follows my lead in dance. When coaxed one-on-one by an instructional assistant, he’ll occasionally try a facsimile of […]
Tags:autism