Imagining Autism: Drama, Performance and Intermediality as Interventions for Autistic Spectrum Conditions

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Imagining Autism is a collaboration between the disciplines of drama and psychology, promoting cross disciplinary research both within and beyond the arts and humanities. Our main aim is to test the hypothesis that many aspects of autism can be ameliorated through participation in drama based activities, specifically live, interactive performance. Our contention is that the embodied qualities of participatory, immersive performance create an opening into the autistic child's world. If successful, the project will provide the basis for a large-scale efficacy trial, and more generally, will raise the possibility that other forms of developmental disorder might also benefit from drama-based interventions. As a consequence, we will disseminate our findings across a wide audience that reaches beyond academia to Health, Education and Social Services. Autism affects as many as 1 in 100 people in the UK and is characterised by a pervasive spectrum of impairments in social interaction, social communication and imagination. There is no cure for autism and there is no single effective intervention. The search continues for an intervention approach which produces demonstrable and generalisable gains for at least the majority of children with autism. There is a lack of research into many interventions that claim to be effective, including drama. Simon Baron-Cohen whose research has transformed our understanding of autism states that ' for severe autism, it may be that no one single method is effective for all children. But researching such methods may enable us to develop a range of methods that teachers, therapists and parents can turn to, to help children connect with the social world.' (Baron Cohen, 2007). This project aims to develop these methods. Our hypothesis is predicated on a close relationship between the triad of impairments which are the diagnostic criteria for autism and the constituent elements of drama:Imagination through the construction of a fictional or alternative realityInteraction in the physical engagement between performer(s) and audienceCommunication through the dialogue between performer(s) and audience Given this relation, the project uses drama techniques as an intervention for autism to facilitate language and communication, sociability and empathy and imagination and creativity. The proposed intervention is designed to help autistic children to compensate for their difficulties through participation in fictional structures in visual and sensory environments using, for example, puppetry, light, sound and multimedia. These help the participants develop 'felt' understanding through experiential, physical and immersive media. Since the highly visual, kinetic and aural qualities of the autistic imagination are also the qualities of contemporary performance, the project also investigates how drama might help us to understand the imagination in relation to autism.The project uses psychological approaches to evaluate the impact of the intervention on three groups of six children, exploring the effect of the intervention on their social interaction, communication and imagination. It will employ a wide range of measures, most of which will be measures which have been used before in studies of intervention in autism. As in other recent intervention evaluations, the main outcome variable will be the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (Lord et al., 2001). In addition to the ADOS, the evaluation will use measures of theory of mind, imitation, emotion recognition as well as observations of spontaneous social activity and play and ratings by parents and staff of attention, social engagement, communication and play based activities. In keeping with the aims of the AHRC scheme, the proposed project promises to further understanding of contemporary human culture through drama and performance practices and our encounter with the autistic consciousness.