Rachel Reynolds and Professor Heidi Abraham, Department of Counseling Psychology and Special Education

My project was to see if students with or without disabilities could improve in their memorization skills and other skills needed for the learning process through practicing and performing a theatrical play. The purpose for this study is to see if theatre could be used like occupational therapy to help stimulate the students in many areas. I tested their improvements by doing some memorization exercises with the children at a daycare before working on a play with them to see where they stood as well as after to check their improvements.

The first memorization exercise consisted of knowing where certain toys were located. In the building, each toy has a place and the children know where everything goes. I simply had one of the teachers entertain the children outside while I moved things around and put them in new places. Once I was done the teacher brought the children in so they could look around the room and see the new places for the toys. She escorted them back outside while I took note of where everything was and scattered the toys on the floor. I had the children come back in and try o put them in their new locations. They started off putting things away quickly but they slowed down as they forget where what was left had been placed. About a third of the toys were left on the floor because the kids could not remember where their new places were. The kids were surprised at the result since they went into this task with great confidence. The kids found this activity fun and wanted to continue playing so we let them put everything back in their original places. This test helped me see where the kids stood in their memorization skills as a whole and as individuals. The other teachers and I performed a few more similar memorization activities with the children before presenting them with the script.

When I informed the children they would be performing a play, they were so excited. I asked the children individually and away from the other children if they would like to participate or not. Most of the children replied quickly with a yes while a few decided they would rather be in the audience. As the kids were being picked up I talked the experiment over with the parents of the children that wanted to participate. I gave each parent a participation form for the parent and child to sign. Some of the parents wanted their child to be in the play but they weren’t comfortable with me using their child’s behavior as references. The children excitedly returned their permission slips and were ready to begin practicing.

I handed out the scripts to the children so they could read it and become familiar with the play. For the children that could not yet read I sat in a group with all of the children and read the script aloud while the children followed along. I had written the play myself and made a few characters with lines and had a female chorus and a male chorus that said some lines in harmony. The script was made so that the play could be done a few times with different children reading the lead roles each time. This provided every child with equal opportunities depending on their abilities. The children began memorizing their lines right away and every day while the young preschoolers took their naps the children used that time to memorize. For the children that could not yet read and the ones with disabilities, the available teachers and I read their parts to them, helping them memorize one line at a time. This process not only helped them memorize lines, but since they read along with us, they began recognizing words. We were helping the children learn to read.

After a month of practicing, it was time for the children to perform the play. As they performed, they came to life and enjoyed every minute of it. Even if what I was doing this study for did not come through, it was still worth it to see the children take pride in their work. The children did well; there were hardly any moments with forgotten lines or mistakes in the action. I was extremely impressed with how well the young children did as well as the children with disabilities. Many of the teachers doubted the abilities of the children and told me they too were impressed while watching the kids perform.

To see if the children had improved their memorization sills through this theatrical exercise, the teachers and I did the same memorization exercises with the children we had done over a month before they performed the play. The results in these exercises showed that the children did improve. Not only did every child improve but the children with disabilities were able to do these exercises much more quickly and correctly. The teachers and I also made the observation that the children had been working well together while working on the play and that behavior carried over into their usual activities at the day care. I had returned to the daycare during winter break and asked the teachers if they still see these improvements in the children and they informed me that they do. I left the scripts with the daycare so that the children could still use them and the teachers informed me that the children perform the play all the time including some of the children that are new to the daycare.

My conclusion is theatrical activities can help children with or without disabilities improve in their memorization skills and in their teamwork skills. These are skills that are constantly used in the learning process at schools. Perhaps if elementary schools include similar programs in their criteria, we may see some changes in the students, and their interests in fine arts may be enhanced.