Center Stage Youth Theatre

Brief Report:  Theatre as Therapy for Children with Autism

Blythe Corbett, Joan Gunther, Dan Comins, Jenifer Price, Niles Ryan, David Simon, Clayton W. Schupp and Taylor Roos

This very interesting study is an evaluation of an intervention program through a theatrical intervention program, Social Emotional NeuroScience Endocrinology (SENSE)Theatre.  This innovative program is designed to “improve socioemotional functioning and reduce stress in children with autism spectrum disorder.” (Corbett et al, 2010)

What captivated me the most about this article was its juxtaposition of theatre intervention and biological data collected from the children in the form of blood and saliva samples in order to demonstrate the chemical reactions the bodies of the involved students had as a result of the drama activities.  I also found interesting the fact that the researchers were quite interested in the heightened anxiety levels the afflicted children experienced as a result of their inaccuracy at interpreting  social cues and behavior, and in observing how these raised anxiety levels might in turn further restrict satisfactory social and cognitive function.

The SENSE program casts impaired participants along with typically developing peers in a musical production, and utilizes an intricate system of modeling by the peer actors who, in addition to rehearsing their own parts, record the impaired actor’s parts on video.  The impaired participants then have an excellent tool they can use to help them rehearse as they learn to imitate the performances on the tapes.  This system incorporates a number of useful approaches to social skills enhancement including “{peer}modeling, providing a nurturing, fun environment, natural reinforcers, multiple trainers

{as well as }video modeling.” (2010)

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