Including+non-verbal+students+in+dance+and+drama+classes

Sabarini (2009) describes a day of performances by adults, teenagers, and children including students from the Santi Rama School for Children with Special Needs. The performances included comedy and dance and a puppet show. What they had in common was the use of only their bodies and facial expression to tell stories in silence. One mother said of her son: "The training was good for him because it taught him to control his emotions better. My son has a hearing disability and sometimes it makes it hard for him." Guidelines for dealing with students who are deaf or have hearing disabilities (e.g. []; []) suggest using pantomime (body and facial expressions) to assist communication. Teaching drama classes involving pantomime not only allows students who are non-verbal, deaf or have hearing disabilities to participate on equal footing with their typically developing peers, but also gives the latter a chance to experience communicating without speech, and develop a sense of empathy for those students who are deaf or have hearing disabilities and rely on non-verbal forms of communication, as well as to realise how much can be communicated without speech. About 70 percent of all communication is non-verbal (Baamie & Kersten 2008). Here is a video ([]) that shows what deaf students can do in drama and dance, given the opportunity. Pantomime can be taught to any age group.

Baamie, T. & Kersten, M. (2008) //Non verbal communication: gender and culture//. Tilberg: Tilberg University. Retrieved on 4 July 2011 from [] Sabarini, Prodita (2009) Audience captivated by deaf's profound silence. //Jakarta Post//, 4th February 2009. Retrieved on 24 July 2011 from []