The township of Millburn/Short Hills is home to more than just residents. This year, Spectra Academy hosted their therapeutic summer camp for local children and teenagers. Potential new homeowners interested in investing in real estate in the township of Millburn/Short Hills understand that by investing in property in this illustrious township, they are also investing in a special community that coordinates and hosts organizations such as Spectra Academy.
Spectra Academy is a parent-run not for profit organization that attends to the needs that autistic youngsters in middle and high school, may have through their theater- based programs. Students practiced and performed short skits for their classmates. The skits help the students to develop their social and interpersonal skills while fostering confidence through theater arts, visual arts, creative movement and other kinds of activities. The director of Spectra, Marcia Sherman, helped to lead the camp this summer at Wyoming Presbyterian Church. Sherman is a doctor as well as the mother of a 14-year- old on the autism spectrum. She reported that Spectra was an extremely valuable experience for her son before he entered high school. Generally, students in the program are high-functioning adolescents on the Spectrum who are coming to grips with their diagnoses. Many students find acting out strong emotions such as anger or frustration to be very therapeutic. Parents report that during and after participating in the program, students show moments of self-awareness where they can critically assess their own needs. If you would like more information about Spectra programs, please visit www. spectra-academy.org.
Potential new homeowners can recognize the value of being a part of a township that supports all members of the community. Residents like Sherman and programs like
Spectra set the township of Millburn/Short Hills apart from other areas.
Spectra Academy is an island of acceptance for local children and teens on the autism spectrum navigating through their middle school and high school years. It is a parent-run non-profit organization that addresses the needs of autistic youth through theater-based programs. Township resident and Spectra director Marcia Sherman is leading the second round of a two-week camp this week out of Wyoming Presbyterian Church. This is the first time the camp – in which students develop social skills and confidence through theater arts, visual arts, creative movement and other activities – is held in Millburn. Weekend and after-school classes were also held in the church this spring Sherman said she asked to use the church’s space because she was trying to keep overhead down and partner with a community organization, and found out that an addition the church built two years ago was intended all along to be “more of a community center.” She explained that church officials were extremely welcoming and accommodating.
“I realized we sort of fit into their mission,” she said.
A physician and mother of a child on the autism spectrum, Sherman said Spectra basically saved her child’s life. James, 14, is about to enter high school and found great solace in the program, especially at an age when students sometimes “tear each other apart.”
“This is a place of complete acceptance,” Sherman said. The students are mostly high-functioning adolescents on the spectrum, facing the stress of becoming aware of their diagnoses. They often hear that they are “incompetent” or that they can’t do certain things, but at Spectra, students write their own scripts and can view their performances on a video created by Stephen Sutton, a recent graduate of Montclair State University who holds a degree in film and is also on the spectrum.
Problems with being social are common in children on the spectrum, Sherman explained, and teaching social skills is a difficult task, but theater makes it more engaging.
“You’re not telling them it’s a social skills class,” she said. “It’s fun.” Gauging the emotion and perspective of a character or being aware of body language are integral to appropriate social behavior as well as theater.
If there are specific issues in a student’s life, they can be brought into acting exercises, and this is “deeply therapeutic,” she said. Acting out all the levels of anger – from mild annoyance to rage – was particularly helpful for one student, and was done in direct response to something his parent pointed out. Sherman explained that parents can’t always see a concrete difference in their children at the end of the program, but that’s part of normal development, which is often “two steps forward, one step back.”. “The kids feel better about themselves at the end of the day,” she said, and parents notice moments of self-awareness when the children are thinking critically about their needs.
The organization is looking for opportunities to grow. It is the only group of its kind in Essex County, but addressing the needs of autistic youth through theater is “becoming something of a movement,” Sherman said She is looking to welcome more “typical peers” from the township or other areas that are interested in helping their community, as well as add a class for younger students on the spectrum. For example, Brian Latimer, a Montclair High School student, comes to Spectra classes to help out with the students and “because it’s fun,” Sherman said. The program has a few exciting initiatives coming up. Sutton in the near future will teach a class on videoediting. As students get older, they will also be encouraged to teach younger students in their areas of expertise.
This is important because students with autism are often on the receiving end of services, said Sherman. There will also be a pilot project in graphic arts using Adobe 5 software. A $2,500 Community Seed Grant from The Daniel Jordan Fiddle Foundation will support 10-week the project, in which students build reading inference skills and gain technical knowledge by creating short graphic novels. Teachers with experience in computer software and language art will lead the program. Initial classes will
cover basics of Adobe 5 software, and later classes will focus on creation of a graphic novel using the skills acquired.
Sherman said the organization started with a group of parents whose children were all around the same age and it’s evolving as they grow. With James, she said, “he’s come a long way. I see the glimmer of what he might be like as an adult.” For more information about Spectra programs, visit the website at www.spectra-academy.org. E-mail: hughes@northjersey.com
