Students on Autism Spectrum

Using research-based best practices, Next Steps serves young people through our philosophy of teaching life skills through stage skills. We strive to help each student take their next steps as an artist and a person. First Stage creates a safe space for all students to be creative and be themselves without judgment or fear of failure. Guided by our philosophy of teaching life skills through stage skills, students will experience the joy of theater each day with a team of teaching artists and special education professionals.

We serve both verbal and non-verbal students, students with classic autism, PDD-NOS, and other sensory processing disorders. With small class sizes, our curriculum explores acting, singing, dancing and improvisation, through which students improve social understanding, fine and gross motor skills, empathy, conversation skills, public speaking and confidence.

Class Sizes: 8 students; our classroom model includes teams of lead teachers, special education professionals, and teaching assistants with approximately a 2:1 student to teacher ratio. Family aides may accompany a student to class as necessary and agreed upon between the family and First Stage.

Accommodations: Sensory supports, quiet rooms, social stories, visual schedules, individualized goal setting, peer role models, video modeling, and small student to teacher ratio are just few of the supports utilized as needed throughout the session.

To register for Next Steps, please contact us at nextsteps@firststage.org or (414) 267-2972.