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

想象自闭症是戏剧和心理学学科之间的合作，促进艺术和人文学科内外的跨学科研究。我们的主要目的是测试这样一个假设，即自闭症的许多方面可以通过参与戏剧活动来改善，特别是现场互动表演。我们的观点是，参与性的、沉浸式的表演为自闭症儿童的世界打开了一扇门。如果成功，该项目将为大规模疗效试验提供基础，更广泛地说，将提高其他形式的发育障碍也可能受益于基于戏剧的干预措施的可能性。因此，我们将向学术界以外的卫生、教育和社会服务部门广泛传播我们的调查结果。在英国，每100人中就有1人患有自闭症，其特征是在社会交往、社会沟通和想象力方面普遍存在障碍。目前还没有治愈自闭症的方法，也没有单一有效的干预措施。研究人员继续寻找一种干预方法，至少对大多数自闭症儿童产生可证明的和可推广的收益。对许多声称有效的干预措施，包括戏剧，缺乏研究。Simon Baron-Cohen的研究改变了我们对自闭症的理解，他说，“对于严重的自闭症，可能没有一种方法对所有孩子都有效。”但是，研究这些方法可能使我们能够开发出一系列方法，教师、治疗师和家长可以求助于这些方法，帮助孩子与社会世界建立联系。（Baron Cohen, 2007）。本项目旨在发展这些方法。我们的假设是基于作为自闭症诊断标准的三种障碍与戏剧的组成要素之间的密切关系：通过虚构或替代现实的构建的想象力表演者和观众之间身体接触中的互动表演者和观众之间通过对话进行的交流该项目使用戏剧技术作为自闭症的干预手段，以促进语言和沟通、社交能力、同理心、想象力和创造力。建议的干预措施旨在帮助自闭症儿童通过参与视觉和感官环境中的虚构结构来弥补他们的困难，例如，木偶戏、灯光、声音和多媒体。这些帮助参与者通过体验、物理和沉浸式媒体发展“感觉”理解。由于自闭症想象力的高度视觉、动态和听觉特质也是当代表演的特质，该项目还研究了戏剧如何帮助我们理解与自闭症有关的想象力。本项目采用心理学方法评估干预对三组六名儿童的影响，探讨干预对他们的社会交往、沟通和想象力的影响。它将采用广泛的措施，其中大部分措施将是以前在自闭症干预研究中使用过的措施。与最近的其他干预评估一样，主要的结果变量将是自闭症诊断观察时间表（Lord et al., 2001）。除了ADOS之外，评估还将使用心理理论、模仿、情绪识别、自发社交活动和游戏的观察以及父母和工作人员对注意力、社交参与、沟通和基于游戏的活动的评分。为了与AHRC计划的目标保持一致，拟议的项目承诺通过戏剧和表演实践以及我们与自闭症意识的接触，进一步了解当代人类文化。

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.