Children with behavioural issues

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paulears
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Children with behavioural issues

Post by paulears »

Has anyone got any experience of performing children who have behavioural issues? For obvious reasons I can't explain my problem in full here. I'd really appreciate some either general advice here, or maybe a private message or two. I genuinely don't know how to get the lad integrated properly. At the moment everyone is watching the rehearsals waiting for their next scene, bar one, who is reading a comic!
ScoobyDoo
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Re: Children with behavioural issues

Post by ScoobyDoo »

Just something I saw this summer, so talking from that point of view. My DS went to a Dance day, there were 3-4 boys who just had no interest in being there, it was the parent who saw it as a good place to leave them for a day either because it was cheap childcare or because parent wants them to do it whether the DC wants to or not. These 3-4 were mutinous, refused to get involved, sat and played on their phones and were quite rude, it ruined the atmosphere for everyone else and by the end of the day the poor teacher was practically in tears.
So am thinking, maybe child just has no interest and that is his/her way of expressing it, so rather than spend all the energy trying to entice them, thus taking time away from everyone else, would it be worth having a chat with the parent? There is no point trying to force a child to do something like drama/dance if they have no natural curiosity.
islandofsodor
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Re: Children with behavioural issues

Post by islandofsodor »

Just been messaging our mutual friend. I will PM you tomorrow (my own Ds has his final show as Oliver tonight) but just for the moment let him read the comic unless it's causing a problem/causing him to miss cues. Don't enforce socialisation. Could be a coping mechanism.
paulears
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Re: Children with behavioural issues

Post by paulears »

Thanks everybody - I've had some very useful information, so really do appreciate it. It only really becomes my problem if it goes wrong and of course it would be me that has to do any bad news, but nobody wants that to happen. At the moment, the chaperones are keen I don't do anything, because their usual strategy for getting good behaviour is to use me as the 'baddie', to threaten with. I can live with that and often growl at them and tell them to hurry up, left, right, left, right - that sort of captain mainwaring thing. I discovered that my pretend 'sexism' that worked so well on 16+ girls works on the little ones too. So a hint that I might really believe boys do things better annoys even 7 yr olds who then attempt to show me that girls always do things better than boys! I'm not sure I'd get away with that in a school nowadays, but it seems to work in theatre.

I've never come across a really square peg before - and I want him to enjoy his time but, I cannot compromise the production and provide what seems to be therapy!
Mamadetres
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Re: Children with behavioural issues

Post by Mamadetres »

Let the child read hos comic all children are different and have different ways to deal with situations, quite shocked this is an issue tbh
islandofsodor
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Re: Children with behavioural issues

Post by islandofsodor »

Mamadetres wrote:Let the child read hos comic all children are different and have different ways to deal with situations, quite shocked this is an issue tbh
Yes but as the parent of two autistic performers you still have to accept that in a professional production if a child cannot cope with the demands of what is expected then maybe this isn't for them. Maybe the comic isnt causing an issue but maybe it means that he is not focusing in what is happening on stage and knowing what comes next etc.
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