Course Description

This one-day course will explore the role of ‘Social Drama’ as an experiential, tailor-made approach to personal and social skills education for children and young people with Autism. The approach advocated is an integrative one, which builds on young people’s existing skills base and develops their areas of challenge through a fun, participative and creative arts based process.

Anticipated Outcomes

By the end of the course participants will have:

• a deeper understanding of the role of ‘Social Drama’ in the education of primary and secondary school children

• practical experience of a range of effective ‘Social Drama’ strategies which can be used in the personal, social and emotional education of children and young people with Autism

• an understanding of how to plan ‘Social Drama’ episodes which will enhance and develop their students’ social interactions in school, local and family settings

• knowledge and understanding of how to target interventions to individual children with Autism.

Course Overview / Content

Overview

This course will explore the role of a unique form of educational drama developed by Carmel O’Sullivan called ‘Social Drama’. It offers an experiential approach to personal and social skills education for children and young people with Autism Spectrum Disorder. The course will consist of a presentation, practical activities and a question and answer section. This successful teaching and learning approach has been developed with over 100 participants between the ages of 7 and 26 over the last 10 years as part of a collaborative research project between the School of Education, Trinity College Dublin and Aspire (The Asperger Syndrome Association of Ireland).

The results of a longitudinal study aimed to quantify and assess the effects of ‘Social Drama’ on the core social deficits of Autism Spectrum Disorder: namely social functioning, language and communication, imagination and theory of mind, will be presented. O’Sullivan’s research has identified 12 new sub-types within ASD and these will be presented and discussed during the course.

Content

Attendees will experience some of the practical social drama activities that are used with the children and young people who participate in this research project. The course will focus on material suitable for primary and secondary school students, and will cover the following areas:

• Fictional narration

• The use of teacher in role and pupil in role

• Stop-play-rewind and fictional journeys

• Protection into role / Protection into emotion

• Working in whole class settings, pairs and small groups

• Strategies to differentiate between fiction and reality

• Working with an assistant to extend and deepen the experience.

Information for Applicants

The course is open to

• Teachers who are currently working with student(s) with Autism in a mainstream setting
• Full-time Special Education Teachers who are currently working with student(s) with Autism
• Participants will require permission from the Board of Management to attend. Typically, substitution for this seminar will only be allowed to classroom teachers with primary responsibility for students with a special educational need and if it is deemed absolutely essential by the Principal
• Typically substitution will only be allocated to non - substitute teachers
• Payment is not available to teachers in a substitute capacity

Refreshments and lunch will be provided.