This is an archive. I have retired, and dancepulse.org is no longer being actively updated. If you have questions about old posts or dance education, please contact me via email.

dancepulse

make your day dance

Entries Tagged as 'Autism'

The power of a hula hoop

December 19th, 2011 · 3 Comments · Autism

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 […]

[Read more →]

Tags:·

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 […]

[Read more →]

Tags:·

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 […]

[Read more →]

Tags:··

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 […]

[Read more →]

Tags:·

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 […]

[Read more →]

Tags:··

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 […]

[Read more →]

Tags:··

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.  […]

[Read more →]

Tags:··

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 […]

[Read more →]

Tags:····

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, […]

[Read more →]

Tags:····

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 […]

[Read more →]

Tags: