FOCUS ON PRACTICE
Drama, narrative and early learning
Melanie Peter
Melanie Peter is a lecturer in early childhood
studies and special needs at Suffolk College,
Ipswich, and a freelance consultant in arts
education and inclusive/special education. Her
recent research has focused on the value of
pretence, particularly for children with autistic
spectrum disorders. In this article, based on a paper
given to the conference ‘Innovation, Research
and Good Practice in the Education of Pupils
with Severe, Profound and Multiple Learning
Disabilities’ at the University of London in April
2002, she presents an approach to developing
drama with severely socially challenged children,
underpinned by a rationale founded in the
importance of early experiences of make-believe
and narrative. In drama, children at early stages of
learning can begin to explore and understand
social narratives from the inside – a vital route to
developing social competence. Melanie Peter
concludes that while play-drama intervention is
aimed especially at children with autistic spectrum
disorders, it can also benefit a wider range of
children with severe and complex learning needs
and help them to participate more effectively in a
social world.
Introduction
At first sight, the notion of drama in relation to many
children with severe and complex learning needs may seem
inappropriate – beyond their representational capabilities
and level of social understanding. Paradoxically, this paper
will argue that educational drama can offer valuable
learning opportunities to such children. Rather than wait for
a magic point at which they may be deemed ‘ready for
drama’, this paper advocates a structured, developmental
approach – play-drama intervention (PDI) – to support and
expedite their ability to make believe (Sherratt & Peter,
2002). Drama can be instrumental in developing their
understanding of representations and how to use them
with others to create shared meanings. It can offer vital
social play opportunities, and the potential for exploring
make-believe and narrative (how events are linked) and
its relationship with text. Additionally, drama offers a
unique reflective window on their play behaviour,
providing a ‘learning how to do it while doing it’
approach to participating more meaningfully in a social
world and leading towards greater social awareness and
understanding.
© NASEN 2003
Pretence: the route to social competence
Historically, psychological studies of child development
have centred on how a child makes sense of experience and
internalises perceptions in mental representations, and the
way this influences attitudes and subsequent behaviour,
and understanding of the intentions of others. It is their
capacity to use representations in shared contexts in a way
that is meaningful to others that is crucial to children’s
development of social competence, as they learn to
understand and take different perspectives (Fein, 1984).
Typically, developing children learn this through
participating in increasingly complex play narratives
(Bruner, 1986; Jones, 1996; Whitehead, 1997) – through
make-believe with adults initially, and later with their peers.
In pretend play, children explore and experiment with
their understanding of familiar social situations and,
increasingly, within imaginary contexts where they make
cultural conventions their own (Vygotsky, 1978). Children’s
play behaviour can reveal not only their growing
understanding of objects and events, but also their feelings
towards people and their relationships with them in
different situations, as they play out important emotional
tensions and themes (Singer & Singer, 1990).
This route to social competence is less readily available to
many children with severe and complex learning needs,
who typically lack a spontaneous drive to seek active
opportunities to interact with their environment and/or
other people. Piaget’s theory is still widely upheld, that
sensori-motor experience is considered to be the foundation
of children’s subsequent ability to form representations and
increasingly sophisticated conceptual understanding. The
extent to which adults mediate play opportunities through
joint action in shared experiences will affect how all
children subsequently learn about their environment and
how to be part of a culture and take their place in society
(Vygotsky, 1978). This is especially true for children with
severe and complex learning needs, who may be totally
reliant on others in order to access opportunities both to
interact with their environment and to engage in social play.
It follows that, if children are denied the opportunity to
engage in pretence, then their social understanding will be
necessarily impaired. Play-drama intervention (Sherratt &
Peter, 2002), geared especially at those with autistic
spectrum disorder, offers a structured approach to enabling
and motivating hard-to-reach children to participate more
meaningfully in a social world. Sherratt and Peter (2002)
contend that enabling them to engage in playful activity will
strengthen those aspects of brain functioning necessary for
British Journal of Special Education • Volume 30 • Number 1 • 2003
21
more flexible thinking, with associated benefits in
communication skills and greater sensitivity in social
interaction – converting the characteristic ‘triad of
impairments’ (Wing, 1996) into a ‘triad of competencies’.
While other playful approaches with children at early stages
of learning are well documented (for example, Intensive
Interaction, Nind & Hewett, 1994), play-drama intervention
goes beyond establishing the foundations for social
relationships: it offers a structured approach to developing
children’s symbolic understanding and use of pretence. This
is appropriate both for those at the earliest stages of play
and those capable of more advanced levels of imaginative
make-believe, but who tend to opt not to become involved
unless supported by an adult or older peer. It endeavours to
bridge the gap between children’s latent play potential and
the apparent lack of play demonstrated by many children
with severe and complex learning needs. Paradoxically, it is
the security of a clear structure in a play situation that may
liberate them to make creative choices and decisions within
gradually broadening boundaries.
Figure 1: Meaning: prerequisites for play and drama
INTEREST
Appropriate content
Captivating –
introducing change
MEANINGFUL
PLAY AND DRAMA
AFFECT
Emotionally
engaging
STRUCTURE
Narrative
framework
Sensitive attunement
Social grouping
By encouraging the discovery of possibilities in social play
contexts from the outset, play-drama intervention seeks to
enable socially challenged children to associate pleasurable
and satisfying play experiences with other people. Parallel
to structured play opportunities, which may be one-to-one
teaching situations, the approach also advocates using
educational drama strategies from the outset to set up group
contexts for developing and exploring pretence. Even for
children at the earliest stages of learning, drama can offer
rudimentary analytical potential to develop their awareness
and understanding of make-believe. Especially through
adults working in role, children may begin to discover
implications of their play behaviour and the potential
impact of their responses on others. In this way, they
may be led to an understanding of narrative – how events
come to be linked as a result of human responses to
situations – the way in which we see patterns and sequences
in life.
The three elements presented in Figure 1 – interest, affect,
structure – are crucial prerequisites for developing
children’s capacity to engage in social play and drama,
making and sharing meanings with others, and working
towards developing the ability to create representations
and sustain pretence with others. To achieve a level of
purposeful play, experiences need to take account of both
the physical and social dimensions of each of these
elements (see Figure 1). Commonly, children with severe
and complex learning needs (especially those on the autistic
spectrum) are not driven by an active search for meaning:
even if they have the physical ability to engage
spontaneously with their environment, they will often opt
not to extend play challenges for themselves, but prefer to
stick to favourite play narratives, such as lining up toy cars
or twiddling string. While these repetitive routines may hold
affective resonance for them and cognitively engage their
interest, the restricted play narrative limits their opportunity
to extend their understanding of causes and consequences.
Making and sharing meaning: prerequisites for drama
Sherratt and Peter (2002) propose a multi-factional model
for developing play and drama, which seeks to provide a
clear structure within which to create, to motivate players
by engaging them in emotionally charged activity, and
which is pitched at a level appropriate to their ability and
captivates their interest. The power of this approach lies in
integrating children’s cognitive and affective responses
within an appropriate play structure, enabling them to invest
meaning in an activity that holds perceptual interest and
personal relevance for them, and which at the same time
offers the chance to operate flexibly with possibilities
within the constraints of the particular play narrative. This
presents children with a framework within which to bring
together their knowledge and understanding of the world in
a way that is coherent and meaningful, rather than
fragmentary. (The latter results from memorising play
sequences as learned routines – completing inset puzzles for
the sake of it, for example.)
However, in interactive contexts with sensitive adults, those
same children may reveal latent play potential. Adult
intervention through scaffolding a play sequence may
provide a crucial context for unleashing the children’s
underlying ability within a more challenging narrative
structure. With children on the autistic spectrum especially,
extending their play will necessarily entail a social demand
– tolerating the presence of an adult initially, and learning
to associate and expect interaction to be a source of
pleasure. Developing the level of social structure in play
and drama activity may need to be carefully paced. For
example, adults may need to respect a child’s preference for
a particular area of the room, accommodate their personal
space by allowing them to sit at a comfortable distance from
the rest of the group, or tolerance of certain people within a
group activity. From this initial position, the child may be
gradually extended in the degree of social involvement (for
example, playing alongside a peer, or sitting with the group
for longer periods).
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British Journal of Special Education • Volume 30 • Number 1 • 2003
© NASEN 2003
Having gained a child’s interest, perhaps initially by joining
in a favourite play activity (or including it within a drama),
and ensuring the activity is pitched at an appropriate level
of conceptual understanding, the adult will need to judge
sensitively when to introduce a change. It can be a delicate
issue, balancing the need for the security of the familiar
with a new challenge. While some feeling of discomfort is
an inevitable consequence of one’s frame of reference
being challenged, arguably a level of intrigue is a necessary
feature for learning (akin to Piaget’s notion of
‘disequilibrium’). However, for some children, this can result
in negative responses if mishandled. This may be
circumvented, and the child may be captivated, by
‘tweaking’ a familiar play (or drama) narrative through a
small adjustment initially. For example, the adult may extend
the narrative by developing a key element in a pivotal way
(which could be the introduction of another object or prop,
a person or character, or a moment in a familiar play routine
or make-believe), talking through possibilities and
involving the child in anticipating the change.
Including features that will provoke an emotional response
in a particular child may help prompt affective engagement
with the experience; for example, recognition of a favourite
item within an activity will have a personal resonance.
Similarly, using concrete objects with multi-sensory appeal
will be more meaningful than symbols or representational
forms at first, and help to work towards more abstract or
imaginary elements. The inclusion of novelty, surprise,
incongruity, fantasy or humour, and adults exuding
emotional warmth, can further enhance motivation and the
appeal of an activity (Peter, 1994; Lillard, 1994; Sherratt,
1999; Newson, 2000; Prevezer, 2000). Such experiences
will be necessarily more memorable because they are
highly charged (fun, exciting, pleasurable, intriguing – even
annoying or frustrating), and more likely to be etched on the
brain due to their emotional quality. Research has also
shown a link between emotional arousal in the mid-brain
and the cortical operations involved in thinking and
problem-solving (Iveson, 1996). The proviso is that this is
sensitively paced, as indicated above, as the child’s level of
interest and attention may be fragile.
It will be apparent that for children with severe and complex
learning needs, developing purposeful play, and sharing in
and creating representations in play narratives with others,
is crucially dependent on adults accurately gauging the
level of affective engagement. This requires sensitive
attunement of a play or drama activity to take account of a
child’s apparent preferences and sensibilities, and capturing
the essence of a child’s movement, rhythm or sound in order
to express a shared feeling (Stern, 1985; Prevezer, 2000).
Some children may require a high level of affect – energy,
excitement, and high-spirited support and prompting – to
participate; others may require a quieter, more oblique,
gently cajoling and altogether less invasive approach. The
level of dissonance within a play or drama activity needs to
be finely tuned: if the level of incongruity is too great (or
too little), interest levels and emotional engagement may
quickly wane or become confused (Sherratt & Peter, 2002).
© NASEN 2003
Drama: developing make-believe
In pretend play with others, children consolidate social
customs and codes of behaviour, as well as projecting into
imaginary situations and exploring new possibilities and
consequences. Educational drama can support and expedite
this process: essentially, at all levels, drama explores why
people think and behave as they do. Drama relies on the
group experience, as it involves exploring shared meanings
– issues and themes that have a universal relevance. Its
appeal to children is that it is fun and intriguing all at the
same time, and they are engaged in active learning contexts
that are live, dynamic and more likely to be remembered.
Drama directly targets – energises – those aspects of brain
functioning concerned with evaluation of affective
experience (see Figure 2); significantly these aspects are
considered to under-function in the brain of a person with
autism, which would seem to endorse the value of drama for
addressing difficulties in social understanding (Peter,
2000a). Crucially, drama offers children a reflective
window on their play behaviour: the possibility to explore,
review and reflect on the implications of their actions and
behaviour and those of others in the make-believe context,
and to make connections with the real world.
Figure 2: Drama: Learning through make-believe
IMAGINATION:
solving problems/dilemmas
within a structure
MENTAL AGILITY:
holding 2 worlds in mind
AFFECTIVE
EXPERIENCE:
experimenting
‘in safety’
EVALUATING
RESPONSES:
emotions, empathy
INTENTIONALITY:
‘mind-reading’,
influencing others
SOCIAL
CONSTRUCTS:
manipulating the theatre form
NARRATIVE:
making meanings
(character, setting, plot)
– understanding of text
TRANSFERRING
LEARNING:
from analogous situations
to the real world
Drama provokes emotional responses in children that are
real, and the chance also to learn about their feelings,
responses and the consequences of their reactions to
situations that are realistic. The power and scope of drama
is that it requires holding two worlds in mind
simultaneously: children are wittingly involved in pretence
and watching themselves at the same time, with awareness
British Journal of Special Education • Volume 30 • Number 1 • 2003
23
that it is not ‘for real’. This helps to develop their mental
agility, as well as providing safe learning opportunities ‘one
step removed’ from real life. By gradually broadening
boundaries within which children are to make choices and
decisions, so they may be enabled to develop more flexible
and imaginative responses to situations – the very act of
engaging in playful behaviour will strengthen this facility
(Sherratt & Peter, 2002).
Drama inherently involves manipulations of, for example,
language, movement and social and physical distance
between players; this offers scope to children for increasing
their understanding of social constructs. They may improve
their effectiveness in social interaction and learn how to
relate to others with greater sensitivity; for example,
with improved conversational competence skills, such as
turn-taking and appropriate eye contact. Drama can make a
particular contribution to the development of communication
and language, by offering a reason to communicate, a sense
of urgency and a range of contexts in which to learn and
apply skills. It also provides opportunities for interaction in
a range of social roles: experimenting with different ways of
communicating, having communicative attempts valued,
and creating an impact on others (Peter, 2000b) – skills that
are essential if individuals are to take control of their own
lives (Goldbart, 1994).
Essentially, educational drama is concerned with
developing children’s emotional intelligence. It emphasises
the active process of creating a shared story with an
unfolding plot. Children can begin to understand from the
inside how events come to be linked – this understanding of
narrative is fundamental to seeing patterns and sequences in
life, especially in social situations. Potentially, drama
offers unique learning opportunities for exploring human
motivation and intentionality arising from situations where
people are under tension, for example, facing a decision to
be made or a problem to be resolved. Children who are
socially challenged (especially those with autistic spectrum
disorder) often have difficulties with empathising with the
mental states of other people (Grove & Park, 2001; Sherratt
& Peter, 2002). The challenge for the teacher of drama,
especially with children with severe and complex learning
needs, is to discover how to enable them to access meanings
embedded in the developing make-believe.
Drama: creating social narrative
Drama explores stories of human experience, often when
characters – players – are in a mess, with a problem or
dilemma to be resolved. While this takes place in an
analogous life situation, it may contribute to children’s
understanding of social narratives in real life, as well as
illuminating meanings within a fictional story, as they begin
to grasp how one situation can lead to another. For example,
why were those animals making such a din on Old
MacDonald’s farm? Is something the matter? Let’s find out
– perhaps we can help… This problem-solving approach
(‘classroom or process drama’ as it is known) is also within
the grasp of children at the earliest stages of learning: it is
possible to encapsulate a dilemma faced by a character at a
24
key moment in a story and explore it through a drama
experience that harnesses features of early interactive
games with caregivers that provide the basis for social
relationships and subsequent learning.
These early interactions typically contain the foundations of
make-believe, where an adult may reinforce a spontaneous
response by a young child in a playful situation and invest
it with a new meaning; for example, a young child in a cot
may delight in repeatedly throwing out a toy to provoke a mock
horror reaction in the caregiver. Similarly, a ‘prescribed
drama structure’ may offer players repeated opportunities in
which they may learn to generate and sustain pretence
within secure, predictable boundaries (Taylor, 1984; Peter,
1994). In essence, the drama experience may take the form
of a turn-taking, ritualised activity which resembles a game,
and which may provide a pivotal framework with
possibilities for creative choices and scope for introducing
change. In this way, children may discover that new
meanings can be shared and developed by manipulating
the elements of make-believe, and also realise an ability to
initiate change and influence the course of events
themselves.
Example: ‘Where’s My Teddy?’ (by Jez Alborough, a
Walker big book, 1995 edition)
This popular children’s story contains many features of a
traditional folk tale, not least the moral theme warning
against wandering into woods alone. It follows a little boy,
Eddy, who goes back to the woods to search for his lost
teddy. There he encounters a giant teddy bear, and then a
real gigantic bear clutching Eddy’s tiny teddy. They are
mutually terrified of one another and in the furore, rush
home, clutching their own teddies. Embedded in the
narrative is the universal theme of feeling frightened by
something. This could form a pivotal drama framework,
hinging on a ‘beat the bogeyman’ principle, which players
can learn to anticipate and enjoy, and which would offer
repeated opportunities for players to come to terms with the
emotional state of feeling scared (based on Peter, 2001).
Following a reading of the story, involve players in adapting
the room to create a ‘set’, using tree cut-outs taped on chairs
for the woods, and masking tape or a length of bubble wrap
to block out a path. Establish a lair for the bear (a screen or
room divider) at one end of the path, with the group seated
at the other end. Involve the group fully in assisting an adult
into role as the bear (putting on a fake fur wrap) and
installing him in the lair. The bear should curl up asleep,
with Eddy’s tiny teddy positioned strategically next to him.
Finally, adjust lighting levels to create a spooky
atmosphere. Once the set is ready, the second adult should
talk the group into the drama, framing the make-believe
with a pregnant pause, before entering in role as Eddy,
wearing a bright red T-shirt as in the storybook (having put
this on in full view of the group).
Eddy greets the players (as if he had chanced upon them
in the wood, so bringing them immediately into the
make-believe) and asks them to help him rescue his tiny
British Journal of Special Education • Volume 30 • Number 1 • 2003
© NASEN 2003
teddy. Each player in turn (with adult support as necessary)
attempts to retrieve the teddy (called Freddy), but of course
the bear wakes up just in time and gives chase back to the
group! This may be framed by a ditty or chant adapted from
the text in the storybook – Park (2002) cites Grove (1998)
in drawing attention to the potential ‘physicality of text’ for
arousing sensory engagement through recital:
[Nathan] is off to find Eddy’s teddy
Eddy’s teddy’s name is Freddy
He lost him in the wood somewhere
It’s dark and horrible in there
He tiptoed on and on until
Something made him stop quite still
Look out [Nathan]!
There’s something’s there!
Quick, run! It’s the giant bear!
By incorporating some of the features of these early
interactive make-believe games within group drama
activity, children with severe and complex needs at the
earliest stages of learning may be enabled to participate in
the creation of a shared social narrative. The same elements
that comprise these early experiences of pretence also give
drama its characteristic mode of expression. The above
prescribed drama structure includes the following features:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
a narrative: a clear-cut, predictable sequence and
secure framework;
tension: a mutually understood key moment (the bear
is likely to wake up and give chase), contrasted with
calm, to frame the make-believe;
turn-taking: requiring players to listen, watch and
regulate their behaviour;
a rhythmic repetitive rhyme: to control the ritual and
appeal to their linguistic receptiveness (Chukovsky,
1963; Bryant & Bradley, 1985);
a clear potent focus (appealing teddy, adults in role
with intriguing items of costume): a point for sharing
meaning and a reason to communicate;
interaction within the make-believe: reacting and
communicating in exchanges with adults in role and an
opportunity to influence others;
active participation: immediate cause-effect
consequences of actions and behaviour and children
enabled to both initiate and respond;
a whole-group experience: adults crucially joining in,
generating an appropriate atmosphere, reinforcing
children’s responses and modelling reactions for
children to imitate.
Prescribed drama structures such as this can teach children
the language of drama, while they are engaged in the very
act of pretence. They may be enabled to discover an impulse
to play, and an awareness of the rules of make-believe
(everyone suspending their disbelief). They may learn to
accept roles and objects being used symbolically to deepen
the pretence, and to modify their actions in the light of
the make-believe. Supporting adults have a crucial
responsibility to create the shape of the play narrative (by
© NASEN 2003
generating an appropriate atmosphere of tension, anticipation
and pitches of excitement and fear, before calm) and to enable
and encourage players to attend, respond and show increasing
initiative within the drama. This may entail modelling
appropriate responses for them to imitate, or sensitively
supporting a child (for example, to approach and interact with
an adult in role), without dominating the child’s responses.
Additionally, other challenges may be integrated within the
make-believe, so that children with severe and complex
learning needs may consolidate, transfer and generalise
their wider knowledge and understanding. They may be
encouraged to make choices and decisions, however small,
and to apply practical skills, for example, handling money,
setting the table, tracking a moving object, or moving
quietly so as not to wake a sleeping creature. Challenges
need to be within their grasp, building on their existing
knowledge and resources and enabling them to contribute
ideas to a situation. The skill and sensitivity of staff will be
crucial in enabling meaningful participation and in
empowering children within the make-believe.
Drama and early learning
Contributing to drama
Children of all abilities are more likely to be interested in an
activity over which they perceive ownership. This will be
dependent on the adult facilitating opportunities to engage
with and contribute to shaping the drama, both in and out of
role. It is crucial that a clear context for the drama is
established, with the drama constructed slowly in small
increments, so that children understand the nature of
pretence and are not confused between reality and the
make-believe. Involving children in adapting the environment
to create the drama space, talking them into the pretence
(‘when I next talk to you, I shall be pretending to be
somebody else’), and using a simple item of costume (hat,
cloak, walking stick) which can be quickly removed and
replaced will all assist in distinguishing the make-believe.
The drama should be structured to allow opportunity for
children to make an active contribution, with support as
necessary, for example, helping an adult into role, assisting
with putting on a garment to indicate a character, and taking
part in activities that inherently demand co-operation, such
as a follow-my-leader drama game. Attractive multi-sensory
props may capture their attention, even if only fleetingly,
and will facilitate a range of sensory modes to access
meaning. Children’s reactions may need to be interpreted
sensitively in the light of the drama context, for example
smiling at the feel of a hat’s texture to indicate a preference
for a particular drama prop to be worn by the teacher in role.
They may also be kept focused through changes of tempo
and an ebb and flow of tension and energy (active then calm
and quiet), as well as sensitive support from adults and
strategic questioning.
Developing a range of questioning styles will be crucial in
encouraging children’s initiative. Open questions (why?
how?) can encourage decision making, for example, the
adult may ask, ‘What shall we do drama about today?’ and give
British Journal of Special Education • Volume 30 • Number 1 • 2003
25
a particular child the opportunity to select from photographs
of different activities on a portable board (or associated real
objects of reference on a tray). ‘Closed’ questions that
demand a yes/no answer are usually considered to be more
limiting, although actually can be potentially very
empowering, especially for reticent children or those with
limited communication skills (Peter, 1994). For example, a
yes/no response to the question ‘Shall we report the burglar
to the police?’ can crucially alter the direction of a drama.
An approach to drama with children with severe and
complex learning needs has to develop their symbolic
understanding of representations and how to use these in
play structures with others, for example, witnessing the
transformation of an adult into ‘someone other’, and seeing
their familiar environment and everyday items acquire new
flexible meanings – a table becoming an ironing board, a
cave or a bed. Park (2001) describes the value of the
narrative context from which meanings may develop
through objects gradually acquiring significance. Even if a
consolidated understanding of make-believe is more elusive
for some children, drama may generate an important
impulse to play – the most fundamental basis for
communication (Grove, 1998). Drama can provide them
with an opportunity to experience an emerging awareness of
make-believe and to connect emotionally with a shared
meaning as part of a group in the creation of a narrative – a
vital ingredient of human experience (Bruner, 1986; Ware,
1994; Whitehead, 1997; Park, 2001).
Learning from drama
As well as learning to co-operate and contribute to drama,
children with severe and complex learning needs should
also be enabled to learn from drama: to relate to the content,
issues and themes. The make-believe story theme should
have a resonance with real life, so that children may learn
immediate consequences of particular actions and discover
implications (for example, comforting a crying adult-in-role,
who promptly cheers up). In early caregiver-child interactions,
adults can act as a predictable riposte to a young child for
soaking up a range of emotional responses, which is one of
the foundations of a sense of ‘relatedness’ and of an
embryonic ‘theory of mind’ (Oates, 1994).
Similarly, working in role, on the inside of the drama, will
enable the adult to respond to the child with an immediacy
and intensity that will facilitate an awareness of a ‘meeting
of minds’ (Trevarthen, 1977; 1979). The adult in role
should ensure clarity of communicative intent through
signals and responses that are blatant, unambiguous and
avoid complex language. This needs to be finely tuned: an
element of melodrama – amplifying responses larger than
life – can be riveting. However, if overplayed, it can risk
becoming confusing and distract from the inherent meaning
(Peter, 1994; 1995).
Using insights to draw conclusions afterwards out of role
will be very challenging for many children with severe
and complex learning needs. However, it is important that
this is attempted, in order to put distance between the
26
make-believe and real life and to set up opportunities for
children to make connections between the two worlds.
Capturing the ‘script’ of the developing drama (the
sequence of events) may support reflection on the narrative,
for example, recording it on videotape and replaying to the
children. Children may also create and recreate pictorial
storyboards with or without captions, based on significant
moments, and use objects of reference (key props) to
prompt recall and discussion. In this way, children may be
brought to a closer understanding that narrative originates
in shared meanings created in action and can be embedded
in a visual and/or written text.
Developing understanding of text requires a more flexible
approach to a known narrative structure, if key moments are
to be probed to ‘unpack’ meanings embedded in the
significant moments of a story (Peter, 1996; Sherratt &
Peter, 2002). Developing drama from story may extend or
deviate from a known storyline, as children discover from
the inside some of the inherent tensions and motives
experienced in key moments by characters (as in the
example above). It may be that this results in an outcome
that differs from the familiar story – perhaps to explore a
parallel scene that might have been happening elsewhere.
Forgotten characters can offer fertile opportunities here
(how did Jack’s mother react when she discovered he had
disappeared up the beanstalk?). This is crucial learning for
children of all abilities: the notion that things can be
different and that they can be instrumental in creating a new
social narrative.
Conclusion
Early caregiver-infant interactions are widely recognised as
providing the foundations for positive relationships and
meaningful interaction within a social world. Research has
further evidenced the importance of make-believe play
and narrative for children’s eventual social competence. A
structured approach to developing drama can enable
children with severe and complex learning needs to
discover pretence and to learn to manipulate representations
with others in the creation of shared meanings. By
including features similar to early interactive games, drama
offers children an opportunity to experience imaginative
play and to learn about narrative from the inside. This may
be harnessed further in the exploration of text: an inside-out
approach to accessing meaning embedded in story.
In drama, children develop their ability to think more
creatively and flexibly in situations and with a better
understanding of their own behaviour and that of others.
This may lead to improvements in their social interaction
skills and in their ability to communicate. Drama can make
a powerful contribution to the development of self-advocacy
and in raising self-esteem, as children discover their
potential to influence situations and respond with growing
awareness and sensitivity to other people’s feelings. By
employing drama strategies that are accessible to children
on the autistic spectrum, so may other socially challenged
young people at early stages of learning also be offered a
route to participating more effectively in a social world.
British Journal of Special Education • Volume 30 • Number 1 • 2003
© NASEN 2003
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––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Address for correspondence
Melanie Peter
West House
99 Lower Street
Salhouse
Norfolk NR13 6AD
Email: [email protected]
Manuscript submitted: May 2002
Accepted for publication: October 2002
British Journal of Special Education • Volume 30 • Number 1 • 2003
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