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 ensemble.*
“I know [...]
Entries Tagged as 'autism'
Turning corners
May 18th, 2010 · 4 Comments · Uncategorized
Dancing – and constantly growing — with autism
March 31st, 2010 · 9 Comments · 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, without [...]
Mark likes dance…
February 7th, 2010 · 2 Comments · 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
Learning about dance & autism, or what to do when you don’t know what to do
October 29th, 2009 · 2 Comments · Uncategorized
With an expanded student population this year, my schedule is pretty crazy — 40 classes per week with 5 different plans per day. Also new is that I serve two self-contained classes of autistic students. Given no previous experience with autism, I’m reading up on it, but I’m also doing a fair amount [...]
Guest Voice: developmental movement for special needs students
October 27th, 2009 · 2 Comments · Guest Voices
When two autism classes were added to my schedule this year, I was grateful to make contact via Anne Green Gilbert with other dance educators who work with special needs & autistic children. Thusfar, this small support group of colleagues communicates somewhat erratically by email, but what a relief it is to hear from [...]
New year, new challenge: learning about autism
September 17th, 2009 · 6 Comments · Uncategorized
Perhaps related to economic pressures, our student numbers jumped from 320 to 380 this September. Sixteen of our new students belong to two self-contained classrooms & are diagnosed as severely impacted by Autism Spectrum Disorders. I’m learning quickly & first-hand what that means, since I provide 30 minutes of instruction for 8 of the children [...]