Spectrum Summer School
“My child has never made a friend before – she made one through this course and that’s huge for us”
Parent of a 2023 Participant
Every year we fundraise in order to offer a four-day summer course for young people with learning disabilities and communication needs. The key aim is to deliver a socially rich experience of teamwork, friendship, and interpersonal skills using the medium of puppetry and film making.
The sessions are led by LAT’s skilled puppetry experts and co-facilitated by experienced speech and language therapists. It offers a dynamic and supportive environment for young people with learning needs. Participants collaborate to create a live or digital performance, and are able to gain valuable new skills, boost their self-esteem, and build meaningful social connections.
In 2023, 11 young people aged between 12 and 16 attended the course, and over the course of the 4 days they were able to:
- Design their own deep sea creature character and make it into a table top puppet
- Create a profile for their puppet with special skills
- Learn simple puppet performance techniques
- Create and rehearse their scenes in small groups
- Film the puppets to create a short film, which they named “The Deep Ocean”
Showcase their puppets to parents and visitors at the closing afternoon.
