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Theatre and dramatic techniques have long been practiced in a wide range of therapeutic settings like educational intuitions, detoxification counseling centers, hospitals, community organizations, rehabilitation and correctional homes for achieving definite sets of goals. Over the years, several approaches across different contexts have established for the development of different set of population. By using movement base intervention, role play, pretend play and improvisation, the drama-based activities improve cognitive and adaptive functioning of people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) by achieving social awareness, imaginative ability, cognition, communication, sympathy and empathy. In India, the art therapy with specialization of the special population is an emerging area. Ramamoorthi Parasuram, one of the very few drama therapists in India, founded drama for autism Centre, Velvi and been working for the development of ASD children since 2004. This paper brings forth his module for drama therapy and analyses how his use of mask, face paint and rehearsing life technique has improved the attention span, eye contact, gross and mine motor skill of the people with ASD. The effect of Velvi's drama therapy is assessed by conducting survey among the parents of such children, then Chi-square test and paired t test is performed for 14 social, behavioral and cognitive indicators.
Keywords: autism spectrum disorder, drama therapy, India, Ramamoorthi Parasuram
Drama based intervention: An introduction
Long before the establishment of drama and dramatic technique recognized as intervention tool in the therapeutic situations, drama and performance were long been in practice as healing instrument. Since the emergence of theatricality as socially embedded practice in the upper Paleolithic age (approximately 50,000 to 12,000 BP), the creative performances such as dance, painting and music were believed to have therapeutic qualities. Showing the archeological evidence and parietal iconography of the cave painting discovered in France, Montelle in his book Palaeoperformance: The Emergence of Theatricality as Social Practice (2009) argued that those creative deportments were fundamentally used by shaman and priests to heal sick clansmen. In the ancient Athenian society, Catharsis was believed to have cleansing quality. Describing Catharsis as 'therapeutic discharge of emotion' of pity and fear (Tate, 1937) the commentators of Aristotle's theory of drama certainly referred to its medical value in mental conditioning. But it was not until the 18 th century, when...