Customer Reviews

Wings to Fly: Bringing Theatre Arts to Students With Special Needs

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This exceptional book is a MUST for anyone who shares the creative arts with students from elementary through high school, those with and without special needs! Sally Bailey not only includes an overview of developmental and physical disabilities, but goes on to cover pertinent issues for any drama or creative arts class; e.g., using drama as a tool to teach other subjects, mainstreaming, behavior management, class composition, working with other personnel, and other basic adaptations for classroom use. She goes on to cover creative drama and improvisational acting classes, puppetry, developing original scripts for performance and specific lesson plans and activities that work educationally and recreationally.

In addition, Sally includes excellent sources of information from books to national organizations on disability, drama, and theatre; as well as a complete checklist for making your facility, staff attitudes, and program barrier-free.

WINGS TO FLY "will teach you how to approach adapting activities and programming to specific situations and individuals, so that you can begin to problem-solve on your own."

This book is informative and contains lots of creative ideas for working with Special needs students. Many of the games and techniques I have used in my non-special education drama classes and rehearsals as well. I read "Wings to Fly" over and over and it continues to inspire me. I recommed it to anyone who is interested in working in the Dramatic Arts.

This seminal work by Sally Bailey includes a clear understanding of the practical aspects of facilitating drama therapy for children and young adults with special needs. Ms. Bailey's experience at the Bethesda Academy Special Needs program adds depth to her understanding of both physical and cognitive difficulties faced when working with these clients. Her fine background as a playwright, director, and drama therapist permeate the entire book. She offers many practical theatre games that can be used by a variety of populations, as well. Few books in this field address the needs as clearly and articulately as Ms. Bailey.

Sally Bailey's book was truly magnificent. it is up to date and well researched. She has a deep understanding of children's needs especially in the world of theatre. I work every day with children with disabilities, I also run theatre and workshops for these great kids and Sally Bailey's book is a must for us all. Her information is also brilliant in that she has obtained her information from her many years experience of running her own theatre classes. I would also recommend it for parents and teachers with children with Special needs/disabilities, she has found ways to make our children laugh and have fun. She writes with such easy clarity for us all to understand. Well done, Sally on a truly marvellous book! Is there another to come??

Sally is a mentor for many of us in the Drama Therapy field, and this book got many of us started on the road to working with people of all development levels. It is a great book to explore for ideas and resources and simply fun to read. Sally is a delight and an amazing teacher and therapist and one of our field's best advocates. I read Wings to Fly years ago and still keep it on hand.

This book is an excellent resource for anyone planning to use drama with students or clients with disabilitites. Many disabilitites are accounted for and the author has tips and encouraging words for all. Told with a sense of humour and from real experience, this book combines practical advise with a belief in human dignity.

The author writes about the education of special needs students at the Bethesda Academy of Performing Arts. This book is not just for special education teachers - because of mainstreamed students, and those with learning disabilities being diagnosed more frequently than in the past, most teachers have a percentage of special needs students in their classroom. The author writes descriptions of common and rare disabilities, and how their needs can be met in theatre classes. In addition, most of the excellent lesson plans, games and ideas can be used with all students. There are appendices with resource group addresses and building accessibility guidelines