Enhancing The Performance of Learning-Disabled Children by Dint of Theatre Education

Vol. 5 No. 2

Year: 2009

Issue: Sep-Nov

Title: Enhancing The Performance of Learning-Disabled Children by Dint of Theatre Education 

Author Name: S. Praveen Kumar, B. William Dharma Raja 

Synopsis: 

In schools, teachers come across pupils who have diverse abilities and special needs. Some of the learners achieve high and some may lag behind in their learning. They may face learning problems such as difficulties in listening, speaking, thinking, reading, writing, spelling, reasoning, calculating or social skills. It is a great challenge on the part of teachers and trained educational specialists to deal with those children with learning disorders through the adoption of different educational strategies. In the current scenario, theatre education has emerged as an innovative strategy to mitigate the gap between educators and the educated. Theater education is beginning to be seen as a unique hybrid of performance and child-centred learning. This educational medium initially aims to acquaint teachers with the concepts of learning and using the experiential method in teaching. This kind of synergy uniting classroom instruction and theatrical tools provides for students educational environment in its most effective way as it is both visual and auditory in a sophisticated fashion. Theatre education has been designed in many institutions across the globe to broaden the base of knowledge, hone skills, facilitate age-specific learning etc. Many theatrical companies today specialize in performances designed to cater to the needs of children with learning disabilities. It is seen that four components go into the success of this programme — thorough familiarity with the system of education, the use of experiential gains, openness to innovative ideas and presence of experts from the world of theatre.  So theater education seeks to create a wide range of learning opportunities across the whole curriculum in an inclusive setting.