This edited volume explores the roles of socially-channeled play and performance in the developmental trajectories of young people who fall on the autism spectrum. The contributors offer possibilities for channels of activity through which youth on the autism spectrum may find acceptance, affirmation, and kinship with others. "Positive social updraft" characterizes the social channels through which people of difference might be swept up into broader cultural currents such that they feel valued, appreciated, and empowered. A social updraft provides cultural meditational means that include people in a current headed "upward," allowing people of atypical makeups to become fully involved in significant cultural activity that brings them a feeling of social belonging.

Autism and Creativity is a stimulating study of male creativity and autism, arguing that a major genetic endowment is a prerequisite of genius, and that cultural and environmental factors are less significant than has often been claimed. Chapters on the diagnosis and psychology of autism set the scene for a detailed examination of a number of important historical figures. For example: * in the Indian mathematician Ramanujan, the classic traits of Asperger's syndrome are shown to have coexisted with an extraordinary level of creativity * more unexpectedly, from the fields of philosophy, politics and literature, scrutiny of Ludwig Wittgenstein, Sir Keith Joseph, Eamon de Valera, Lewis Carroll and William Butler Yeats reveals classical autistic features. Autism and Creativity will prove fascinating reading not only for professionals and students in the field of autism and Asperger's syndrome, but for anyone wanting to know how individuals presenting autistic features have on many occasions changed the way we understand society.

It is no easy task to find a teaching technique that can truly change the course of a child with special needs. Thirty years ago, when Janet Tubbs began working with children who had low self-esteem and behavioral problems, she developed a successful program using art, music, and movement. Believing that unconventional children required unconventional therapies, she then took her program one step further—she applied it to children with autism, ADD/ADHD, and Asperger’s Syndrome. Her innovative methods and strategies not only worked, but they actually defied the experts. In this new book, Janet Tubbs has put together a powerful teaching tool to help parents, therapists, and teachers work with their children. Creative Therapy for Children with Autism, ADD, and Asperger's ​​is divided into two parts. Part One provides an overview of Autism Spectrum Disorders and introduces and explains Janet’s novel approach to teaching. Her goal is to balance the child’s body, mind, and spirit through proven techniques. Part Two provides a wide variety of exercises, activities, and games that are both fun and effective. Each is designed to reduce hyperactivity, increase and prolong focus, decrease anger, develop fine motor skills, or improve social and verbal skills. All are part of a program created to help these children relate to their environment without fear, anxiety, or discomfort. A child may appear stubborn and difficult, but that doesn’t mean that the child isn’t intelligent, curious, or creative. With the right treatment, such a child can be reached, taught, and set on the road to improvement. The lessons provided in this book may be just what you and your child have been waiting for.

The Creativity Reader is a necessary companion for anyone interested in the historical roots of contemporary ideas about creativity, innovation, and imagination. It brings together a prestigious group of international experts who were tasked with choosing, introducing, and commenting on seminal texts focused on creativity, invention, genius, and imagination from the period of 1850 to 1950. This volume is at once retrospective and prospective: it revisits old ideas, assesses their importance today, and explores their potential for the future. Through its wide historical focus, this Reader challenges the widespread assumption that creativity research is mainly a product of the second half of the twentieth century. Featuring primary sources interpreted through the lenses of leading contemporary scholars, The Creativity Reader testifies to the incredible richness of this field of study, helps us understand its current developments, and anticipates its future directions. The texts included here, many of them little known or forgotten, are part of the living history of creativity studies. Indeed, an examination of these seminal papers helps the new generation of creativity and innovation researchers to be mindful of the past and unafraid to explore it.

The seminal Dartmouth Conference (1966) remains a remarkably influential moment in the history of English teaching. Bringing together leading voices in contemporary English education, this book celebrates the Conference and its legacy, drawing attention to what it has achieved, and the questions it has raised. Encompassing a multitude of reflections on the Dartmouth Conference, The Future of English Teaching Worldwide provides fresh and revisionist readings of the meeting and its leading figures. Chapters showcase innovative and exciting new insights for English scholars, and address both theoretical and practical elements of teaching English in a variety of settings and countries. Covering topics including the place of new media in English curricula, the role of the canon, poetry and grammar, the text is divided into three accessible parts: Historical perspectives Dartmouth today: why it still matters Reflections: but for the future. This powerful collection will be of value to researchers, postgraduate students, literature scholars, practitioners, teacher educators, trainee and in-service teachers, as well as other parties involved in the teaching and study of English.

Vygotsky at Work and Play is an intimate portrayal of the Vygotskian-inspired approach to human development known as ‘social therapeutics’ and ‘the psychology of becoming’. Holzman provides an accessible, practical-philosophical portrayal of a unique performance-based methodology of development and learning that draws upon a fresh reading of Vygotsky. This expanded edition includes new content dealing with how Lev Vygotsky’s work can be applied to profound social issues of our times, including worsening police/community relations, authoritarianism in schools, the medical-model approach to social/emotional life, and the erosion of play in Western cultures. Holzman also weaves together Vygotsky’s discoveries with qualitative case studies from organizations that practice the approach in psychotherapy offices, classrooms, outside-of-school programs, corporate workplaces and virtual learning environments. The new edition of Vygotsky at Work and Play poses a practical-critical challenge to more traditional conceptions and methods of psychology and education, introducing performance as a new ontology and the author’s own activist research performance as a new way to do psychology. It is an essential read for researchers and professionals in educational and developmental psychology, psychotherapy, cultural historical activity, social science, performance studies and education.