Photo taken during my daughter’s Family Week dance presentation. She has classmates with special needs mainstreamed in her class.
The post of Lady Cess about her son’s school program made me remember how it is with children with special needs when they have their own school program presentation on stage. If typically developing children practice their dance or musical for a week or two before the presentation, children with special needs need more. Much more.
First, teachers and parents have to consider that:
- Some of these children have difficulty controlling themselves and would probably not sit still nor stand still nor perform, even onstage with people looking at them.
- Some of these children have difficulty following instructions.
- Some of these children have difficulty adjusting to a new situation, such a new place and seeing familiar faces.
So, here are some tips, for teachers, as well as for parents on how to have a “successful” school program.
- Plan everything months before the program is going to be shown.
- Practice, practice, and more practice, with a lot of patience.
- Practice dance steps or action songs about a month or more, before the program. Does not necessarily mean a twice-a-day event but slowly and surely would mean a great thing, incorporated with everyday lessons and activities.
- Costumes? Have these made in advance and have the children wear these during practice.
- Have the children practice their presentation on the actual place or venue where the program will take place.That way, they are familiar already and would know where to enter, exit, sit and how to behave in the place.
- Invite people to watch the practice even if it kills the drama or the suspense of watching them perform.Why? So they get used to people looking at them during performance.
- Take videos of the children when they have sort of mastered the presentation, wearing their costumes. Why? One might never know what might happen during the program
I think I just about covered the basics. The rest would be up to those who know their child best. Having a successful program is relative because this can be based upon the objectives set for each of the children included in the presentation.
I remember once during a stage presentation we had, the mother of a child/performer cried. When we asked her why, she replied that “she was very happy to see her son onstage”, even if he was not able to follow the dance steps perfectly, being onstage and being able to follow was enough for them. It was a success, sweetly savored and fondly remembered.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 16th, 2008 at 8:00 am and is filed under Being a (Special Ed) Teacher, Challenge Yourself, Lessons in Life, special education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
parents have been contesting the existing regulation, and hopefully this appeal would eventually encourage the school admin to be a bit lenient with the current rule.