Teaching Strategies for Neurodiversity and Dyslexia in Actor Training addresses some of the challenges met by acting students with dyslexia and highlights the abilities demonstrated by individuals with specific learning differences in actor training. The book offers six tested teaching strategies, created from practical and theoretical research investigations with dyslexic acting students, using the methodologies of case study and action research. Utilizing Shakespeare’s text as a laboratory of practice and drawing directly from the voices and practical work of the dyslexic students themselves, the book explores: the stress caused by dyslexia and how the teacher might ameliorate it through changes in their practice the theories and discourse surrounding the label of dyslexia the visual, kinaesthetic, and multisensory processing preferences demonstrated by some acting students assessed as dyslexic acting approaches for engaging with Shakespeare’s language, enabling those with dyslexia to develop their authentic voice and abilities a grounding of the words and the meaning of the text through embodied cognition, spatial awareness, and epistemic tools Stanislavski’s method of units and actions and how it can benefit and obstruct the student with dyslexia when working on Shakespeare Interpretive Mnemonics as a memory support and hermeneutic process, and the use of color and drawing towards an autonomy in live performance This book is a valuable resource for voice and actor training, professional performance, and for those who are curious about emancipatory methods that support difference through humanistic teaching philosophies.

Inclusivity and Equality in Performance Training focuses on neuro and physical difference and dis/ability in the teaching of performance and associated studies. It offers 19 practitioners’ research-based teaching strategies, aimed to enhance equality of opportunity and individual abilities in performance education. Challenging ableist models of teaching, the 16 chapters address the barriers that can undermine those with dis/ability or difference, highlighting how equality of opportunity can increase innovation and enrich the creative work. Key features include: Descriptions of teaching interventions, research, and exploratory practice to identify and support the needs and abilities of the individual with dis/ability or difference Experiences of practitioners working with professional actors with dis/ability or difference, with a dissemination of methods to enable the actors A critical analysis of pedagogy in performance training environments; how neuro and physical diversity are positioned within the cultural contexts and practices Equitable teaching and learning practices for individuals in a variety of areas, such as: dyslexia, dyspraxia, visual or hearing impairment, learning and physical dis/abilities, wheelchair users, aphantasia, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and autistic spectrum. The chapter contents originate from practitioners in the UK, USA and Australia working in actor training conservatoires, drama university courses, youth training groups and professional performance, encompassing a range of specialist fields, such as voice, movement, acting, Shakespeare, digital technology, contemporary live art and creative writing. Inclusivity and Equality in Performance Training is a vital resource for teachers, directors, performers, researchers and students who have an interest in investigatory practice towards developing emancipatory pedagogies within performance education.

This book by best-selling author Thomas Armstrong offers classroom strategies for ensuring the academic success of students in five special-needs categories: learning disabilities, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism, intellectual disabilities, and emotional and behavioral disorders.

About 1 in 20 individuals are dyslexic. This figure also applies for dyspraxia and ADHD. This fully revised edition of David Grant’s thought-provoking, insightful book develops our understanding of these specific learning differences and considers the further challenges presented by these overlapping conditions. This new edition includes a brand-new chapter on dyscalculia. New sections also explore updates in the study of dyslexia, dyspraxia and ADHD as well as visualisation and synaesthesia, in the light of new data and research. These updates enable the reader to gain a fuller understanding of the sensory experiences and thoughts of individuals with specific learning differences. The author takes a life-style approach to explain many of the everyday experiences and choices of individuals with specific learning differences, including sleep, sports, visualisation and creativity, and uses real life examples explained in the words of those with specific learning differences. The accessible style of this book will immediately strike a chord with anyone with first or second-hand experience of specific learning differences. It is invaluable and insightful reading for those with specific learning differences as well as their parents and/or partner, teachers, teaching assistants and SENCos.

A definitive and evidence-based guide for psychologists, teachers, coaches, HR personnel and all professionals who must understand and work with dyslexic adults. The only book to look at dyslexia within the context of life span developmental psychology, including the factors that contribute to success - now fully revised and updated Combines an accessible style with a strong focus on evidence-based practice and a sound theoretical model on which to base assessment, counselling, teaching and training Provides a clear guide to the kinds of assessment that can be conducted and the ways in which dyslexic adults can be supported in selection, training, education and employment Includes coverage of overlapping syndromes such as dyspraxia and dyscalculia, and up-to-date check lists for syndromes that can be used as part of the assessment process

This book examines the theatrical movement-based pedagogy of Jacques Lecoq (1921-1999) through the lens of the cognitive scientific paradigm of enaction. The conversation between these two both uncovers more of the possible cognitive processes at work in Lecoq pedagogy and proposes how Lecoq’s own practical and philosophical approach could have something to offer the development of the enactive paradigm. Understanding Lecoq pedagogy through enaction can shed new light on the ways that movement, key to Lecoq’s own articulation of his pedagogy, might cognitively constitute the development of Lecoq’s ultimate creative figure – the actor-creator. Through an enactive lens, the actor-creator can be understood as not only a creative figure, but also the manifestation of a fundamentally new mode of cognitive selfhood. This book engages with Lecoq pedagogy’s significant practices and principles including the relationship between the instructor and student, identifications, mime, play, mask work, language, improvisation, and movement analysis.

What are we teaching, when we teach Shakespeare? Today, the Shakespeare classroom is often also a rehearsal room; we teach Shakespeare plays as both literary texts and cues for theatrical performance. This Element explores the possibilities of an 'embodied' pedagogical approach as a tool to inform literary analysis. The first section offers an overview of the embodied approach, and how it might be applied to Shakespeare plays in a playhouse context. The second applies this framework to the play-making, performance, and story-telling of early modern women – 'Shakespeare's sisters' – as a form of feminist historical recovery. The third suggests how an embodied pedagogy might be possible digitally, in relation to online teaching. In so doing, this Element makes the case for an embodied pedagogy for teaching Shakespeare.