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 12 April 2019

Looking back on what Hercules did in Nebraska - including multi-sensory possibilities

Although I wasn't able to get to Nebraska in person for CAMWS last week, thanks to Shannon DuBois, I was able to follow live-tweeting. The thread is below. I hope I've caught everything. I understand that quite a bit of colouring-in went on! If anyone present who reads this would like to send me (s.deacy@roehampton.ac.uk) a photo of their work, I'd love to see it. I've included a live-tweet about my fellow panellist Krishni's reference, in her paper, to the multi-sensory potential of my research. Since the conference, I've had a fruitful initial discussion about multi-sensory studies and autism with another panellist, John Coetzee from Stanford Medical School who spoke on 'putting dyslexia into context'. While I was at a conference in London - in person this time... - on Tuesday, I also briefly sounded out members of the Sensory Studies in Antiquity Network. So one outcome of the panel, an unexpected one, is the possibility of research into sensory aspects pertinent to my autism and myth project.

I'm sorry that the formatting isn't perfect - this is the best I've able to manage...
 
 

  
Roehampton ClassicsTweet text
 
 

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