Dancing to a Different Rhythm - Initial thoughts on Reviewing Literature

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      “Most people see autism as a disease to be cured.My attitude is, ‘Let’s work with who you are at this moment and not try to fix it.’ In short, for now, just let the children dance." 

The above quote is by Andrew Palermo taken from the article "Autism Moves - Teaching children the language of dance" by Kathryn Bold (2013). Palermo is a professor of drama and a director and choreographer of musical theatre in California. He gives movement workshops for children on the autistic spectrum.

I found his view very interesting because, so far, the literature I have read in my enquiry area of 'dance and autism' has all centred around the negative aspects of autism and the desire to try to find ways to 'cure' it. I write the word 'cure' in speech marks because, as yet, there is no known cure for autism.

Palermo's view that we should accept these children on their own terms and not try to find ways to change them made me reflect upon the fact that society has a tendency to want everything to conform to the preconceived notion of what is considered to be 'normal'. But what is 'normal'? Douglas Turkington et al in the book entitled, " Back to Life, Back to Normality, Cognitive Therapy, Recovery and Psychosis" states:

      "Deciding what is normal is entwined with the beliefs and customs of the culture in which you exist."  (Turkington, 2009, p.24)

One person's perception of normality can therefore differ from another's perception of it. Palermo's view seems to support the idea that autism isn't an abnormality, rather that it is a difference and should not necessarily always be seen in a bad light. I agree with the notion that no-one should be looked upon as being 'abnormal'- we are all different and should be accepted as we are. That is why I like to think of the concept of everyone dancing to their own unique rhythm.

Turkington's view of normality is in tune with what I had read in Reader 5 about Plato's theory of comparative ethics, that being that people's perception of what is socially acceptable varies according to the context of time and place within which it occurs.

I thought about the mother of a pupil I had taught who was on the autistic spectrum. This mother had not told me about her daughter's autism initially as she had not wanted me to view her daughter any differently from the rest of the pupils in the class. Her daughter was only mildly affected by autism so it was not immediately evident that she was on the autistic spectrum and I merely thought that she was very shy and timid by nature. This mother clearly wanted her child to be perceived as being 'normal'. She feared that, if people at the dance school knew her daughter had ASD they might think of her as being abnormal. She was desperate that she should not be ostracised or bullied by her peers.

I am appalled at the thought of someone who has ASD being bullied just because they are different from what we generally accept is 'normal'. The Interactive Autism Network survey into bullying found that 63% of children affected by ASD were bullied.

The link to the survey is below:

http://iancommunity.org/cs/ian_research_reports/ian_research_report_bullying

I realised that I needed to know a great deal more about autism and the experiences of people who were living with it on a daily basis in order to better inform my enquiry into 'dance and autism'. I decided to get an overview of how people's understanding of autism had changed since the term was first coined by Eugene Bleuler in 1908. 

The early accepted notion of autism was the view put forward by American child psychologists Leo Kanner and Bruno Bettelheim in the 1940's that it was caused through poor parenting or was triggered by a bad experience. It seems inconceivable to me that people believed that a child's upbringing might cause autism, but there hadn't been much scientific research into the area, so it was probably due to a lack of knowledge about the subject that this view was taken.

In the 1990's and early 2000's there were many who thought that vaccinations may be to blame for autism in some children but there has been no scientific proof that this is the case. Despite this, some parents still are convinced that vaccinations caused their child to become autistic.

We now know that autism is a neurological disorder but there is still no known single cause, though it is believed that genetic components may play some part. There is speculation that environmental issues, air pollution, certain prescription drugs taken during pregnancy and older parents conceiving children may  also cause autism. Autism is now seen as a spectrum disorder (ASD). There are five Autism Spectrum Disorders, or Pervasive Development Disorders:

• PDD-NOS (Pervasive Development Delay- Not Otherwise Specified)
• Austism (sometimes referred to as Classic Autism, Early Infantile Autism, Childhood Autism, or Autistic Disorder
• Asperger Syndrome
• Rett Syndrome
• Childhood Disintegrative Disorder

There is still a great deal that is not known about ASD. There are many different approaches aimed at helping the development of children on the autistic spectrum. 

The above information was accessed from the sites below:

http://www.autismsciencefoundation.org/what-is-autism

http://www.news-medical.net/health/Autism-History.aspx

The following link is to a website that lists and evaluates many therapies and treatments for people with ASD. 

http://www.researchautism.net/autism-interventions/our-evaluations-interventions


 Dance has been shown to have very positive affects for people with ASD but neither Dance Movement Therapy nor Autism Movement Therapy are mentioned on the above website, despite the fact that both are being used to help people with ASD develop their communication, co-ordination and social interaction skills. I believe that this is possibly due to the fact that it is difficult to measure the benefits of these therapies because the research is qualitative rather than quantitative.

As a result of my initial reading I have decided to review the following:

• "Teaching Motor Skills to Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders" by Teri Todd

• "Dance for Young Adults on the Autism Spectrum" by Lydia Hance

• "The Dancing Dialogue" by Dr Suzi Tortora