Elaine Hall, The Miracle Project, and Crossing the Autism Barrier

Elaine Hall, The Miracle Project, and Crossing the Autism Barrier

Most of this blog's readership is likely already familiar with the Miracle Project, a theater and film arts program for children with special needs and their typically developing siblings and peers. The program gained special attention from the autism community following the 2007 release of HBO's Autism, the Musical, which chronicled its concept and launch, following five autistic participants and their families throughout the journey.

The movie is a must-seewell-edited, well-paced, well-executed, and ultimately uplifting. You'll cry, maybe a lot, if you aren't made of stone. But even more compelling than the movie about the Miracle Project is its founder, Elaine Hall. Elaine's story is one worth reading about in detail and began soon after she adopted a Russian baby and began to recognize that he was severely autistic and non-verbal. When aided, however, by the mediums of song, dance, and drama, Elaine found that she could join her son's world, and he could join hers. This personal breakthrough and her son's dramatic progress gave rise to the Miracle Project. With it, Elaine has been able to touch the lives of countless special needs children.

Theres more to it. Elaine is a special, gifted person with a remarkable talent and personality and I really do recommend seeing the movie. But what fascinates me most about Elaine's story and the concept behind the organization is the idea of joining an autistic person's world, rather than the more conventional approach of pushing him or her to join ours. The end game is the same: to reach that person and to compel him or her into society, to negate the natural pull of autistic introversion, to ultimately, provide and teach socially-satisfying experiences. "If they need to hide under a table we'll have one of our volunteers get under the table with them. If they need to flap their hands we turn that into dance and we flap with them," says Elaine about the Miracle Project sessions. In Autism, the Musical, she speaks similarly about how she related to her son Neil, in the early years of his diagnosis. She would join him in his "stimming" behaviors, mimicking them in an attempt to relate, and sought therapists who were willing to do the same. And slowly, Neil emerged as a more social being, became responsive, and progressed.

To my understanding, there are two sides and many layers to what is accomplished. For one, a parent like Elaine achieves connection to her autistic child by being engaged in the same activityparallel play, if you will. Is it what she wants to be doing? Is it something she deems appropriate for the age or environment? Of course not. But let's not forget what else occurs: the child experiences a social aspect to a typically anti-social behavior. Whether or not it sinks in on a cognitive level, the child's own world becomes shared, and is no longer solitary. A behavior which is meant to exclude others no longer does so! In its place is acceptanceacceptance of the emotion which sparked the hand-flapping session in the first place, and of the person doing the flapping. When we feel accepted, we feel safe.

On some level, the above could be considered Social Skills 101: to connect with others, find common ground, and if that's impossible, start with their interests and try to relate and in listening to them, echo back what they say to reflect comprehension and empathy. Isn't that essentially what Elaine did what she does? It makes sense to me.

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