FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- One in every 110 children is diagnosed with some level of autism. For many parents, this usually means problems with communication and little interest in interacting with others. But now a new program is changing how we look at autism by putting kids in the spotlight.
As a carefree 10-year-old Kerrick Coble doesn't hold back. But he wasn't always like this. When Kerrick was two, the Cobles' started noticing something was different about him.
"With a lot of kids you would give them something and they would play but with Kerrick there was never an 'I'm just going to play,'" Kurt Coble, Kerrick's dad told Action News.
At three, Kerrick was diagnosed with pervasive developmental disorder or PDD-NOS- a mild form of autism. Now, researchers at Vanderbilt University are using the theater to help improve the lives of kids diagnosed with the disorder -- from mild to severe.
"We really want to understand whether these social experiences are really stressful for some of our children," Blythe Corbett, Ph.D., Assistant Professor and Director of the Sense Theater at Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, told Action News.
Dr. Corbett looks at social and communication skills before, during and after the camp and looks at stress levels by measuring one of the primary stress hormones -- cortisol. In three different studies, Dr. Corbett found acting improved the way kids expressed themselves and they also showed lower stress levels.
Read more of Margot Kim's, ABC 30, article HERE.
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