Adapting

In one’s lifetime, everyone has to make adaptations. Whether it be learning to get along with a sibling, accept how much homework a teacher will be assigning everyday, or dealing with new friends at a new school. Everyone makes adaptations, on a small or large scale at some point.

Special Gifts Theatre is not exception to adaptations. There is a large variety of kids with special needs that attend the program. Some kids need to be pulled aside for speech and have their lines changed to help them shine when they speak. Others require extra help focusing on the class.

Billy has a few things that need to be adapted to meet his needs. For one, he needs a scooter to help him get around. One thing that happened last Tuesday was adapted to Billy and really helped him in choreography.

My class was practicing the choreography for the Hand Jive with another class. Billy is a really good dancer, but has a little bit of trouble keeping up with the dance. He is usually one step behind everyone else. While doing this dance, one of the teachers came up to us and offered a suggestion that he tries doing each movement for a longer period of time but a fewer count. Every person would do each movement in the hand jive four times and at a faster pace, while Billy and I would do each twice and at a slower pace.

This adaptation was not a big deal and really improved Billy’s dancing. He was on beat with everyone else and I could tell he was happy with the huge smile stretching across his face.

My point is that having something minor being changed to fit the need of someone is not a big deal and can make a big difference. By slowing down the dance for Billy, his movements were really improved. It was not a huge change to make and it resulted in a better outcome for Billy.

Just like taking a kid out for speech or learning to get along with a sibling, making adaptations can turn out for the better and don’t require much in the first place.