Neurodiverse Workshops

Neurodiverse Workshops
Created by Donald Welch and Raquel Quinones

Where: Brucie Ball Educational Center / When April 8th-10th

Working together as a teaching artist and bilingual speech therapist Donald Welch and Raquel Quinones are hosting poetry workshops for neurodiverse students at Brucie Ball Educational Center. These workshops are spaces for students to practice self-expression and self-advocacy while meeting the needs of their individualized education programs.

Using Welch's Sensorimotor Poetry Workshop model that’s specifically designed to meet the sensory needs of neurodiverse youth, the pair works with students in one-hour sessions over the course of one week. These sessions culminate in the publication of a small, self-published book of poetry that the students can share with their school and community. As part of this week long program, Welch and Quinones are hosting a training for the staff of the school. The goal of this training will be to both make the school aware of their project and to offer teachers the resources to run poetry workshops and a similar publication project on their own.