INCLUSIVE FAMILY
The Arts for
EVERY CHILD
B right lights and colorful costumes can
be an engaging way to let children’s
imaginations run wild as they watch
theatrical performances. But these elements
can also overwhelm children with sensory-
processing disorders. Attractions throughout
the DMV have created ways to ensure every
child can enjoy the creative freedom and
expression that come from the arts.

Sensory-friendly performing arts
Imagination Stage in Bethesda offers sensory-
friendly theater classes and performances
for children in preschool through 12th
grade. The inclusion team emphasizes that
success looks different for every student.

Whether it’s delivering a line or watching
their peers, the team ensures that children
enjoy themselves in an environment that’s
comfortable for them.

“Children who are working on social skills or
interacting with their peers have a space where
the environment is fun,” says Scott Turner,
access and inclusion manager for Imagination
Stage. “It’s not like school where things are
very intense or there’s a specific goal.”
Turner’s team also sends children and their
34 WashingtonFAMILY MARCH 2022
parents a pre-visit “social story” packet that
reads like a storybook. The material provides
step-by-step illustrations that detail the
process of going to the venue, purchasing the
ticket and watching the performance, plus all
the important details in between. The packet
also includes the plot points of the performance
so that children can follow along easier.

Turner adds that having neurodiverse
students participate helps them to teach other
kids important social skills.

“Empathy is perhaps the biggest thing,” he
says. “For some of our students, this might be
their first time getting a chance to interact or
learn alongside others with a disability. They
kind of see a different perspective. This is true
for students with disabilities as well,” he says.

At Strathmore, another performing arts
venue in Bethesda, families of children with
sensory-processing disorders also receive a
pre-visit packet to help them explore sensory-
friendly events with their children.

All of its family shows operate in a “no-shush”
environment where attendees are encouraged
to laugh out loud, move throughout the venue
and perform other nontypical actions.

“We’re not expecting a typical ‘sit down and
be quiet’ concert behavior from these family
shows,” says Lauren Campbell, vice president
of education and community engagement.

Strathmore holds an hour-long training to
ensure its performers and staff are properly
equipped for sensory-friendly specific
performances. The hosts and artists also make
sure that their performances don’t include any
overwhelming noises or lights.

“Many public spaces are extremely
unwelcoming for children and adults,”
Campbell says. “It’s critically important that
we take this overwhelming encouragement
and turn it into opening up as many of these
spaces that we possibly can.”
Arts experiences for all ages
and abilities
The nonprofit VisArts in Rockville offers
visual arts classes, camps and other programs
for all age groups and experience levels.

Students can learn from various media styles
such as ceramics, photography and glass art.

“One of our main goals is to make sure that
every class here is accessible to everyone,” says
Emily Fucello, assistant educational director
for VisArts.

VisArts has a “no right or wrong way to
create or learn” philosophy. Staff members are
trained to work with differences in abilities
and learning styles, and they’re equipped with
materials to complete various projects with
their students.

“Every child learns a different way and will
create art a different way. Our instructors have
been working with children for a long time and
understand that each one has a different set of
needs,” Fucello says.

Small class sizes allow VisArts instructors
to give one-on-one personalized assistance.

“On all of our class offerings, we give people a
way to request accommodations for students
as needed,” Fucello says. “That kind of open
communication that we have with the parents
is really important and helps us give the
children the best experience possible.” n
PHOTOS COURTESY IMAGINATION STAGE / JEREMY RUSNOCK, LLC
BY LEENIKA BELFIELD-MARTIN



HEALTHY FAMILY
How to Foster Friendship
Between Siblings
BY RUDY MALCOM
All children will develop at
different paces
SKYNESHER/E+/GETTY IMAGES
“T here is a crack, a crack in
everything. That’s how the
light gets in.”
Licensed psychologist Harriette Wimms
uses this lyric from Leonard Cohen’s song
“Anthem” to think about family conflict. She’s
the co-founder and clinical director of The
Village Family Support Center of Baltimore.

“Even when parents feel like they’re pulling
their hair out because their kids are bickering
so very much,” she says, “that can be a pathway
toward growth and healing.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a somewhat
polarizing effect on families, says Daniel Bauer,
a licensed marriage and family therapist at Bala
Child & Family Associates in Bala Cynwyd,
Pennsylvania. Increased quality time has
made some families stronger. Yet “too much
cooped-up, anxious time” has put a strain on
other families.

In particular, the quality of sibling
relationships is one of the main predictors of
mental health in old age, according to a report
in The American Journal of Psychiatry. Healthy
sibling relationships promote empathy and
academic achievement. Less positively, sibling
bullying is linked to anxiety and depression.

How can parents and caregivers help their
children forge friendships with one another?
“The first way would be eliminating
competition or perceptions of it,” says Emily
Simonian, head of learning and a licensed
marriage and family therapist at Thriveworks
in Washington, D.C. “It’s natural to compare
ourselves to the people next to us, especially in
childhood, but sibling rivalry can divide siblings
in childhood—and even into adulthood.”
Children develop at different paces socially
and emotionally, which disabilities can
impact. “Create a household where individual
differences are celebrated to reduce that
sibling rivalry,” she says.

Conflict between siblings doesn’t always
have to do with issues that kids have with each
other. “Maybe something else is bothering
them and they’re taking it out on the person
close to them,” Simonian says.

When kids act out, parents shouldn’t
dismiss it as sibling rivalry, Bauer says. Instead,
they should consider what’s going on for them
internally, even if the kids themselves are too
young to have the words.

Research suggests that siblings whose
mothers didn’t show much favoritism when
they were growing up had better relationships
than siblings who reported favoritism.

Bauer notes that “no child is born into the
same household.” For example, his older sister
was an only child, but he was born with a built-in
sibling. Each child has different experiences that
can depend on various circumstances, such as
parents’ finances.

Parents can also help their kids resolve
conflict by teaching them how to communicate
their feelings without blame or provocation.

While kids should be empowered to
sometimes figure things out themselves,
effective modeling is key.

You may have heard the saying that a
parent is only as happy as their least happy
child. Wimms says to flip this notion on its
head: Sometimes children are only as happy
as their parents are.

“There has to be a focus on loving ourselves
and paying attention to our relationships in
order to support our children in doing the
same in the present and in the future when
they’re out on their own,” she says.

Similarly, “if we want our kids to spend time
with each other, we have to learn to spend
time with our kids as well,” Bauer says. Young
kids won’t appreciate that their parents are
working long hours to put food on the table if
their emotional needs aren’t met.

“The more seen and heard they feel from
their parents,” he says, “the better everything
in life goes, and they’re able to be better
siblings with each other.”
Encouraging more quality time
As children age, Simonian says, they will
naturally want more time apart—not only
from their parents, but from their siblings.

That’s OK, but encourage quality time, “even if
it seems they’re growing out of it.” What works
for one family might not work for another,
depending on a myriad of contexts.

“It’s asking more of already strained and
stressed-out parents, but the one thing that
Resolving sibling conflicts
we do
know is
that the more quality time kids
To encourage friendship, Simonian says
that parents can complement siblings when spend with their parents, the better off they
they’re playing with each other and get them are,” Bauer says. “For parents to be infinitely
talking about how they view their relation- curious about their kids and unconditionally
ship. “Ask them, ‘I know sometimes you loving to their ability—that’s what grows good
don’t get along, but can you think of times homes where kids are able to thrive and be
you don’t get along and is it fun?’” she says. good siblings.” T
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