EXHUMING THE LATENT ABILITIES IN THE COGNITIVE IMPAIRED IN GHANA USING PSYCHODRAMA OR DRAMA THERAPY

A closer look at the components of the Expressive Arts; dance, drama, music, visual art etc., discloses an enormous potential in effecting positive attitudinal and behavioral change in its users. Drama therapy and/or Psychodrama which encourages creativity and spontaneity, employs action methods in varied techniques to attain thriving therapeutic results. This concept is explored with the children of Dzorwulu Special School in Accra, Ghana. Healing in this context means to enliven the situations these children find themselves in, so that the creative activities they indulge in become a metaphor in this adjunct healing method. Drama therapy therefore is a potential teaching tool for intervention to achieve change and transformation in these special needs children. In these therapeutic processes, the children are encouraged to develop their artistic potentials regardless of their intellectual inadequacies so that their handicaps become tolerable to allow development to proceed. Creativity and therapy will then play complementary roles rather than opposing one another. Article visualizations