For the past several years at Little Friends, we have been involved with the use of improvisation as a tool to help our students with social communication skills. We have done this in a couple of different ways.
The first involved two well renowned jazz musicians, Janice Borla and Jack Mouse, who have donated their time and energy to our music program. We have held sessions where children who have been hesitant to communicate will fully participate in improvisational jazz music. Having observed this on multiple occasions, it is like watching a flower bloom in front of your eyes. Expressions come from a place within the child that we hadn’t seen before, and it is incredible to see!
The second way we have used improvisation has been through workshops involving both adolescents and adults where the individuals we serve get to practice improvisation through different exercises. Led by John Wightkin, a graduate of Second City in Chicago, we work on helping those involved become engaged with being able to express their emotions and learn social skills in the process.
Our premise for what we are doing is that with improvisation, nothing you do is wrong. What we have seen since doing this is that we are seeing improvements with an individual’s ability to express and interpret their emotions. Social skills such as staying focused and being able to take turns when the time is right are big things to accomplish. Big picture, we are seeing development in one’s self-confidence, which matters in so many ways.
We have seen such acceptance of the use of improvisation and resulting success that I’m pleased to share that effective January 24, 2022, John Wightkin will be joining the Center for Autism as our Manager of Strategic Learning Initiatives.
We believe so strongly in what we are seeing that we want to take this program to the marketplace and help other schools and businesses should they be interested. I can speak to the impact the use of this program has had on our staff in terms of personal development and see first-hand the positive impact it has had on both our students and our team. I would encourage others to investigate this as a team building and development opportunity. John has incredible skills and a passion to help others.
We will share more information about this new initiative as we move forward. It will be fun to let others know how we progress in the time ahead!
