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Shakespeare help needed
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I need recommendations of how to ease into Shakespeare for my daughter as she struggles with Shakespeare due to her special needs. She has Autism, ADHD, and Anxiety this makes some things difficult. She absolutely loves to read and always has a book in hand. However, the language in Shakespeare is very intimidating and confusing to her. I myself love Shakespeare and have looked forward to reading his works with her since she was just a picture on the ultrasound monitor.
Thank you in advance for the help.
Are you trying to read real Shakespeare? Try Nesbit’s Shakespeare (paraphrases only a few pages long) or Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare (paraphrases about 20-30 pages long). SCM recommends dramatized audiobooks by Arkangel.
Something that helped my kids when we first started Shakespeare was having something to manipulate (little Lego figures, dolls, stick figures, etc) to help them track the story. We would read Nesbit’s Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare the first week to get familiar with the names and places. The next week we listened to the Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare because those are usually a bit longer and have more detail. Then we listened to the play (or read it aloud ourselves). The Arkangel productions are really fabulous. We can hear the play as a story with them because it is so well done. No weird or halting reading/voices, etc. We followed along as they read. Then we watched movies of the actual play – not adaptations. It worked.
As my kids got older and more familiar with Shakespeare, we didn’t need the manipulative figures anymore.
Have you looked at SCM’s Shakspeare in Three Steps? I’m partial to the guide and ArkAngel recordings. The dramatization has helped my children understand Shakespearean language more easily than when we simply tried to read it. Midsummer Night’s Dream is a great play to start with. My older children beg to continue listening to the recording. This is a big deal for me since my oldest has some processing struggles.
This book is an amazing asset when reading Shakespeare as a family!
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