AARC Tip of the Month - April 2017
Autism Awareness Month!
Acting for Students on the Autism Spectrum

Individuals on the autism spectrum sometimes don't recognize the need for social language skills. Some develop methods of recognizing cues and signals that call for them to respond in a certain way. Just like actors in a play or an improvisational exercise, these individuals have to figure out the best response to a situation or a nonverbal signal.

Learning social skills and social understanding through an acting class could be a fun way to hone the skills of responding to a subtle indication that an appropriate response would be useful.

There are acting and other theater opportunities in many schools, and in community theater groups. This could be a fun and rewarding experience for an individual of any age.
Upcoming AARC and Community Events:
Date
Location
Event
Details
4/15
Anchorage
Shop for crafts made by people with disabilities
4/15
Palmer
Awareness event and fundraiser
4/22
Anchorage
Awareness event and fundraiser for AARC
4/24
Fairbanks
Sensory friendly day at the Children's Museum
4/24
Fairbanks
Workshop
4/29
Anchorage
21+ show and fundraiser
5/20
Soldotna
Awareness event and fundraiser
6/3
Fairbanks
Awareness event and fundraiser
Books of the Month:
The books of the month are available in the Special Education Service Agency (SESA) Library. Search for books on the  SESA website, or contact our Librarian, Anne Freitag, at  afreitag@sesa.org  or  907-334-1301 

Electronic books may be accessed from anywhere in the state. If you've used our ebooks before,  go to the login page here.  If you haven't, please contact Anne so she can set up a username and password for you.  
Click here for more information about ebooks.

You can also look for additional articles in a variety of databases by using SLED, which is available for free for all Alaskans:  http://lam.alaska.gov/sled
Acting Antics: A theatrical approach to teaching social understanding to kids and teens with Asperger syndrome
By: Cindy B. Schneider
Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2007.
ISBN:   9781843108450

Description: "This fun and inspiring step-by-step program provides the full set of tools for developing social understanding in children with Asperger Syndrome (AS) through drama. Cindy B. Schneider explains how the central processes in acting - including making and interpreting inferences from non-verbal cues, taking another's perspective, and formulating language - can be highly effective ways of addressing social cognition deficits in children with AS. Acting Antics contains a wide repertoire of activities and ideas for immediate application at home, in the classroom, in therapy workshops or social groups, ranging from initial warm up techniques, through paired activities, to larger group scenes and staging a show. Helpful appendices provide questionnaire forms to enable both the child and the program leader to assess and monitor the child's understanding of their roles, along with reproducible scripts and suitable scene designs. This complete, practical program provides a wealth of enjoyable educational ideas for parents, teachers, and therapists of children with Asperger Syndrome." - publisher's website.
Teaching Asperger's Students Social Skills Through Acting: All their world's a stage!
By:  Amelia Davies
Future Horizons, c2004.
ISBN:  9781932565119
 
Description: Description: Provides an easy to follow, step-by-step drama curriculum specifically for parents and professionals without backgrounds in acting. John Stamm's humorous plays at the end of the book are take-offs of children's fairy tales.
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