Autism and Classical Myth: November 2018

Why classical myth and autism?

Why classical myth and autism?

The idea for this project started to take shape at a meeting in 2008 with a special needs teacher, who mentioned that, in her experience and those of her colleagues, autistic children often enjoy classical myth. I began to wonder why this might be the case, and whether – as a classicist who researches, and loves, classical myth – there was anything I could contribute. I started this blog to report on my progress which was often sporadic until the launch of the Warsaw-based European Research Council-funded project Our Mythical Childhood (2016-22) to trace the role of classics in children’s culture.

My key contribution to the project is an exploration of classics in autistic children’s culture, above all by producing myth-themed activities for autistic children. This blog shares my progress, often along Herculean paths, including to a book of lessons for autistic children focusing on the Choice of Hercules between two very different paths in life. The image above, illustrating the homepage of this blog, is one of the drawings by Steve K. Simons, the book's illustrator, of a chimneypiece panel in a neoclassical villa at Roehampton in South West London. The lessons centre on this panel.

Friday, 30 November 2018

From Hercules to CIRSIE on December 6th - notice on paper concerned with turning classical myth into a learning opportunity for autistic children

As I've reported briefly on this blog already - and a more detailed report is forthcoming! - I've recently spoken about my Herculean resources for use with autistic children to two distinct audiences.

One was a group of experts in autism, in the Adam Room at Roehampton. The other was a group of classicists at a conference at the University of Reading.

In addition, earlier this week I discussed the resources in a class with my second year Myths and Mythology students. And, above all, I went into a local primary school's autism unit last month and did some activities with students there to pilot-test the resources. I'll say more about these activities soon. The reason I'm posting now is as follows.

Next week, I shall be sharing the resources with a different audience again. I shall be giving a paper to CIRSIE: The Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Special and Inclusive Education at Roehampton. I'm excited at the prospect of receiving their expert feedback. If you'd like to read my abstract, and find out about the date, venue etc, please click the link here.