The Arc Carroll County adult autism assistant director uses theater creatively
By Rachel Roubein Times Staff Writer | Posted: Monday, May 19, 2014 12:15 am
With a background in drama therapy, Carroll native Britt Burr has helped build a program for adults with autism from the ground up.
Last year, The Arc Carroll County decided to see if residents were interested in a program just for autistic adults. The nonprofit servicing those with intellectual and developmental disabilities held informational sessions, garnering ideas from parents who said there was a need for this service in the county.
And last month, Burr began her job as The Arc’s assistant director of autism services. She grew up in Westminster, received a bachelor’s in psychology and theater from McDaniel College and a master’s in drama therapy from Kansas State University. Since April, she’s worked on creating the new service, which consists of a theater program, job hunters class and Relationships 101 class to begin in September.
Q: What drew you to this field?
A: It was probably when I was working with the therapeutic parks and recreation in Carroll County — the therapeutic division in that — and I ended up being the Drama 101 specialist there doing an original production, just performing it for their friends and family. They created a story and everything.
I had students in there that [have] autism, so I ended up gravitating toward them because it really interests me in how their brain works and the neurological difference that they have. And I really found it refreshing to be around them. So I went to Kansas and got involved in an internship where I built a program from the ground up using filmmaking. … I surrounded myself with middle-schoolers with autism and really ended up enjoying it.
Q: What kind of misconceptions do you think there are from people about autism?
A: I think, if you talk to someone with autism, they’ll say they don’t like the word “disorder.” They don’t like feeling that they’re the other. Some misconceptions are that they can’t form relationships or they can’t hold down a job, but in reality, they are just like a neurotypical — they just learn differently, and they have different social cues and social greetings. They don’t really understand social rules often, so we have to meet them where they are.
So I think some misconceptions are that you can’t joke with someone with autism, you have to be really serious with someone with autism. And you don’t have to be. You can just be yourself and just act normally. … Sometimes I relate it to the deaf community. The deaf community doesn’t see their deafness as being an impairment; they see it as an enhancement to who they are and part of their identity. And a lot of people in the autism community see that as their identity. It’s not an impairment; it’s a difference and it’s an enhancement. And if you ask some of them, they wouldn’t change their autism. They like the way they think. They just get frustrated when other people don’t understand or give them time to understand.
Q: Why do you feel that it’s important to also have programs for adults and within the county?
A: Legally, in the state of Maryland, students can be in public school systems until they’re 21, but once they’re 21 [they] need to be graduated out. And many of them, if they have any funding at all, it gets drastically limited, so that when they’re 21, you’re forced into the “real world.” And when you’re in school for 21 years, you know that structure. You know you wake up in the morning, you take your classes, you have lunch, and you come back and you do your classes again and you go home and you do what you do at home.
But when you’re 21, what do you do? When you’re an adult, what do you do? Your structure is completely shattered. Here, this program is providing that structure, providing a place of belonging, providing a place of connectivity so that they can have those social connections. I think some misconceptions are that people with autism want to be alone, which is not the case. They just sometimes don’t know how to initiate conversations when they’re not alone, like social hangouts and to communicate effectively to get what they want, which is interactive connections. And that’s what this program can provide: A place for them to belong and to connect with one another who are like them and to be out their in the community.
Q: What do you envision for the program? You’re starting it from the ground up.
A: We’re going to completely stray off of any straight and narrow path and get really creative. What we want to do is do a theater program — some clients have expressed a lot of interest in getting involved in a theater program, which is right up my alley, so I’m really excited about that. A theater program where it’s called, Barrier-Free Theatre. … So it’s an all-inclusive theater company that gets together, does drama activities, drama games, social activities. And at the end of [however] many weeks — in this case 11 weeks — there will be a one-act performance that they created themselves that they can present to their friends and family just to show their work.
The other class that we’re offering is a job hunters class. Many times some misconceptions are people with autism can’t hold down jobs. … This class will be designed to develop job skills and research. How to go online, research what you want, which many of them will probably know what to do, but [it] also aids adults on the spectrum on how to enter the workforce. So, what are they already good at, and let’s see if we can find a job for that. What is their passion? … At the end of that 10 weeks, we’re going to do a mock interview or a real interview if we can swing it. Rehearsing that interview, what it will be like, how to dress, how to introduce yourself, talk to a stranger — because they’re going to see me for 10 weeks — but how to walk into a room and be really confident and introduce themselves and practice those skills.
The last class is Relationships 101. I’m really happy that both parents and guardians and clients agreed to have this one. It’s a 10-week course where the class will give an individual a capacity to form new relationships: How to introduce yourself to somebody and have a back-and-forth conversation and maintain lasting relationships, how to initiate hang-out times, how to text your friends to say, “Hey, let’s meet up.” … At the end of that 10 weeks, we’d like to do a party or a dance.
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