Art and Theater Games with Fran Sillau
It was my privilege to experience an art and theater games session with Fran Sillau. Fran has the gift of leading activities that engage his audience through the use of story telling and drama. His passion is giving children and youth with special needs the exciting experience of participating in imaginative and creative drama. During the session I participated in, he lead several groups of young adults with special needs. He did an amazing job of meeting them at their level. He shared stories and allowed the participants to engage in acting of their own. He used puppets, props, and his personal enthusiasm to engage these young adults. He inspired me to use creative activities in my own practice some day. For some clients, drama may be an exciting endeavor that will open up a new world of self expression.
It was exciting to watch the participants laugh and enjoy Fran's activities. Some of the people acted out the stories and scenarios while staying seated and others got up and acted wtih more movement in the center of the group. Those that were able to verbally communicate did so during their creative acting. Fran did a great job of giving all participants the oppurtunity to be invovled with the activities. He was able to pick up on the strengths and abilities of the young adults and give them appropriate challenges through the activities.
From this experience I brainstormed how theater activities could be implemented into occupational therapy practice. The activities I observed could have been used to work on several areas including: dynamic balance, postural control, activity tolerance, social skills, and motor planning. Depending on the client's deficit, the occupational therapist could grade the activity so it was the appropriate challenge in therapy for the client. These activities may be especially motivating for children who have not been interested in other therapy interventions.
One lesson that I learned from this experience is the importance of being flexible when working with individuals with special needs. A therapist will never be fully prepared for how clients with special needs will react to certain interventions or therapeutic activities. No matter how great an intervention may seem, there is no way to be positive that the client will react positively to it. It is important to have several ideas in mind when entering situations such as these. With several ideas in mind, it is still important to be able to think spontaneously to adapt the activity when all of the planned ideas fail. Being flexible is a crucial quality for being an occupational therapist.
Though the adults seemed to enjoy the theater games, I think there was another reason that the adults were having fun. A lot of the young adults genuinely seemed to be enjoying the company of the others in the group. Cummins and Lau (2003) did a review of the literature involving community integration and people with intlellectual disabilities. This review of the literature suggests that the primary goal of intergrating those with intellecutal disabilities into the community is to give them a sense of connectedness with others. The findings suggest that this sense of community, or connectedness, may not be easily accomplished with the general public. It is more easily acheived with others who have intellectual disabilities (Cummins & Lau, 2003). Hopefully the group of adults I observed were having fun with each other because they had formed social bonds and have a sense of community with one another.
Reference
Cummins, R. A. & Lau, L.D. (2003). Community integration or community exposure? A review and discussion in relation to people with an intellectual disability. Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 16, 145-157.
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