The arts have a special role in the education of children with learning difficulties. Sarah Dustagheer explains.
Think outside the box, blue-sky thinking and push the envelope more and more people are being encouraged to work creatively. But in the world of special needs, creativity is not an optional add-on; it is an essential tool for learning and personal development. I discovered this for myself when I was part of a two-week residential team at Shorefields, a school for special needs children, in Clacton-on-Sea.
The residency was initiated by the Tendring office of Creative Partnerships, the governments creativity programme for schools and young people. All the lessons we observed used creativity to deliver learning objectives and motivate children. In a lower school class, it was story time.
This story was completely multi-sensory, so a trip to the market included tasting freshly cut tomatoes, clutching beads, smelling spices and counting money. The teaching staff explained how this fun process was designed to help each child individually. The tasting of the tomatoes was important for one child who usually disliked touching anything wet. For another child, counting money worked on her maths skills. And one child had sat and listened to the whole story, without being distracted a significant personal achievement.
In an upper school lesson, the topic was different types of food healthy and unhealthy. The children were asked to think of their favourite food and to tap the rhythm of the words onto a drum for the other children to guess. So fish and chips became three bangs on the drum, others were much more difficult to guess! The game got the children thinking about their favourite food and whether it was healthy or not. In terms of their personal development, it was an opportunity to express their opinion. Finally, the act of tapping out rhythm was a fun way to work on movement and coordination.
Shorefields School teaches children and young people with moderate to profound learning difficulties. A typical lesson might have to cater for students with difficulties speaking, hearing, seeing or moving. A creative and multi-sensory approach to learning, then, enables the teaching staff to provide for all students. One student can hear a trip to the market, through the words of the story. At the same time, another student who may have hearing difficulties can taste and smell the market with tomatoes and spices. In the further education department, one student who had talking difficulties was able to explain to us exactly what he did on work experience through a Power Point presentation that used photos he had taken.
However, multi-sensory and creative teaching also makes subjects motivating and memorable for all students. For example, older students were learning about different types of jobs potentially quite a descriptive, dry topic. But the material was delivered through a game of charades where each student mimed a job and the others had to guess what it was. Some jobs were harder to mime than others and initiated a discussion about what these jobs were like, and whether the students would like to do them.
Naturally students sometimes feel insecure because of their learning difficulties, but creative activities help to build confidence. When one student found out I worked in drama, she proudly described how shed been in the school show last year. Similarly, another student gave an enthusiastic drum lesson to the music practitioners I was working with. The walls of the school are covered with the paintings, drawings and pictures of the students who will happily show you their work.
So-called creative thinking is often just the way that people with learning difficulties think. We met a young man with autism who found it difficult to talk to us. Yet, near the end of our time in the school, he came to show us his artwork, which was of a professional standard. The painting showed every feature of the building in exact detail, but it had not been painted from a photo. He had an immensely strong visual memory, as well as an eye for colour and geometric shapes. In terms of his learning, then, it was important to deliver material visually as much as possible. Actually, research shows that everyone has preferred learning styles. Preferences include visual learners, auditory learners and tactile learners. It is clear that using creativity and multi-sensory activities could be a useful learning tool for anyone.
Every school, mainstream or special needs, wants students who are engaged and engaging, and lessons that are stimulating and memorable. The work of Shorefields School shows that creativity can achieve these aims and produce students who are rounded and confident individuals.
Sarah Dustagheer is a drama practitioner and is currently studying for PhD in theatre space.
e: sarah_dustagheer@hotmail.com
Creative Partnerships, Tendring will be working with Shorefields School until 2008.
w: http://www.creative-partnerships.com/tendring