Youth in Arts is the Marin County Affiliate of VSA arts California (Vision, Strength and Accessibility). YIA Mentor Artists work with students of all abilities in Pre-K to Post-Secondary Special Day Classrooms in and around Marin County.
This year, YIA Mentor Artist Hannah Dworkin has been working with students that have speech and language delays in an Early Intervention Program. Hannah designs curricula utilizing Music and Movement to enhance development in a variety of areas including Verbal Skills, Language Accuisition, Gross and Fine Motor Skills, Interpersonal Skills and Phonemic Awareness.
Students in Hannah’s class experience 45 minutes of singing, dancing and fun while building these important skills.
Our VSA program has provided program in Marin Special Day Classrooms for about 30 years. One Special Day teacher had this to say about our progam:
Having VSA Arts residencies in our classroom is such a valuable
experience for the students with severe special needs. While we
always strive to mainstream with our typical peers on campus, the VSA residencies take the pressure off our students to perform perfectly or even modify their behavior, so they can enjoy the lessons.
Not only do my students feel more relaxed and are therefore able to
listen and participate in classroom activities, but they are able to
improve their verbal skills through song and their locomotor skills
through the fun movements. My students and staff enjoyed the weekly lessons and missed our artist dearly when her time was up.
Our staff also benefit from the VSA residencies because we are able
to fully participate in the activities and truly engage all of the
students at the same time, therefore allowing us to perform better.
It is what we like to call “magic time”!
We look forward to another year with your VSA arts program! Thank you so much for continuing to offer this phenomenal program to our students with autism and other severe special needs.
To support this program, visit our home page at youthinarts.org and click on the “donate” button.
