As I have set
out in the previous two postings to this blog, I am currently beginning to plan
my second set of activities for autistic children, which, as I have said, will
be concerned with interplays between between myth and history. The current
posting reflects on an issue that I am taking note of as I prepare these
resources, namely how far I am writing not so much for ‘real’ autistic children
as for my own sense of what an autistic child might be.
In addition, I have learnt a great deal from the practitioner’s reports that Sonya Nevin has added to some of her entries for the Our Mythical Childhood survey. Here, here and here for instance Sonya discusses how the intended audiences of books for very young readers respond to the material presented for them, including in ways that the author did not intend (for each link, click the heading 'ADDENDA').
I have learnt a great deal from these various activities, but what is missing from them is engagement with children. However, as well as all these activities with adults, I have also, twice now, been into a local primary school’s autism unit with Effie, firstly to meet the children and their teachers and secondly to conduct a very initial pilot study of the Choice of Hercules activities. It is in response to some of the questions asked by the students that I have come up with the topic for the second set of activities. Soon, I shall post on what the questions were and how they have shaped this new stage of the project.
A little over a
year ago, I wrote a piece for Liz Hale’s Antipodean Odyssey blog
setting out my ‘Saturnalian surprise’ of 2017. The surprise in question was my contribution to a set
that Liz was collecting from the Our Mythical Childhood team. What I shared was this: despite the best
efforts of adults in packaging classical myth in the best possible way for
children, the children in question might not respond in the way that the adult
expects them to.
One issue here
might be a point made by Sheila Murnaghan in an article that I quoted from in
the posting, namely that, as it is adults who write children’s literature,
their work “inevitably answers to adult agendas and addresses not so much real
children as adults’ constructions of children”.[1] Re-reading this quotation a year
and a bit on, I am struck by just how well it applies to the resources I am
creating for autistic children.
During the
early months of 2018, I produced the first of three sets of resources for use
with autistic children, based around a particular episode concerning Hercules,
where the hero faces a choice between two opposing paths in life. I did this
having thought a great deal about what it is like to experience
the world as an autistic person. I thought about what the distinctive traits of
autistic thinking and autistic experience can be. I thought about how far it
might be possible, though myth, to set up a gateway between the world of an autistic
person and that of a non-autistic person. I thought about how far, though
classical myth, I could help autistic children deal with some of the challenges
of living in a world where non-autistic experiences dominate. And I thought about
how far, through classical myth, it might be possible to stimulate autistic
children’s imagination.
Having done all
this, I am now reflecting on how it is inevitable that, as an adult, I have been
bringing my own notions of children and childhood to what I write. I am also
reflecting on how far the activities I was developing were responding to
adult agendas, and addressing my own construction of an autistic child. I did, however, stress in the Saturnalia piece
that it is important to take account of what children say about myth. I said: "Children learn when they encounter myth. We can learn too – from children."
Since then, I have been musing on how far it is important to observe what
children see when they encounter something classical.
I attended a
Q&A session recently – in late November of last year – with Marcia Williams, an
experienced and successful children’s author. When asked whether she runs focus
groups she replied that she never does. Rather, she writes what she thinks
children will find entertaining and interesting. At the other end, I have heard
arguments in favour of finding out how children respond to children’s literature.
For example, in a review of Katarzyna Marciniak's recent edited collection on Classics and children's literature, Nadya Willliams suggests that one approach might be interview children about how they feel about what they have read on a given topic.
In addition, I have learnt a great deal from the practitioner’s reports that Sonya Nevin has added to some of her entries for the Our Mythical Childhood survey. Here, here and here for instance Sonya discusses how the intended audiences of books for very young readers respond to the material presented for them, including in ways that the author did not intend (for each link, click the heading 'ADDENDA').
In the months after
I completed the first set of resources, I began gathering feedback on them –
from adults, including a group of autism specialists. I took part in a workshop
in Warsaw in a café run by autistic people and some of the staff from the café
took part. Again, they were adults. I also worked with Effie Kostara, a
classical philologist and Education practitioner who wrote a guide for teachers
who might be using the resources. I ran an activity last month with students at
Roehampton where their depth of engagement with the activities led to some
deeply-engaged responses including the one pictured here. But, again, the
participants were adults.
I have learnt a great deal from these various activities, but what is missing from them is engagement with children. However, as well as all these activities with adults, I have also, twice now, been into a local primary school’s autism unit with Effie, firstly to meet the children and their teachers and secondly to conduct a very initial pilot study of the Choice of Hercules activities. It is in response to some of the questions asked by the students that I have come up with the topic for the second set of activities. Soon, I shall post on what the questions were and how they have shaped this new stage of the project.
4 comments:
I find this quite topical and immediately question if there is indeed a way of involving children especially those with autism in the writing or acting process, given that we believe they are too young to write or speak for themselves. Is there really a possibility of them speaking for themselves not just responding? Also can their responses be involved in the production of new mythic content?
Many thanks for your comment! One thing that really excites me is just how ready children, including autistic children, are to share what they feel and think - through reading and speaking and also through drawing and music and a whole array of non-verbal communications. So I'd say that there is indeed a way to involve children!
Hello, Susan.. This is Effie.. Reflecting on our experience and trying to remember what children were saying while working on the myth, I think that they seem to be more engaged when we 'bring' the myth closer to their experiences.. Either by using questions or specific tasks.. I remember that many children were trying to comment on the picture using contemporary structures and ideas.
Yes that chimes with my memories Effie - I was struck at how the children brought their own interests and views of the world to their responses to Hercules and to the two women...
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