Acting Antics: A Theatrical Approach to Teaching Social Understanding to Kids and Teens with Asperger Syndrome

by Cindy B. Schneider

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.

192 pages, Paperback

First published December 15, 2006

Reviews

[Maddsurgeon · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent resource - simple theatre games for kids with an aim to teaching social skills to children with disabilities. Specifically aimed towards those Asperger's Syndrome, these games and activities are directly geared to teach the skills needed to understand body language, tone of voice, facial expressions, imaginative problem-solving, and taking turns in conversation. A lot of the suggestions in the book have broader application as well, but as someone who's looking at starting some theatre classes for autistic children, I'm really glad someone else is on the same wavelength. Recommended to educators and theatre artists alike.