Using an inclusive therapeutic theatre production to teach self-advocacy skills in young people with disabilities

This quantitative study utilized an inclusive therapeutic theatre production for young people with disabilities, mental illness, and medical conditions to establish if involvement in the production could affect self-advocacy skills, specifically, assertiveness. In the literature, assertiveness has been documented as a subcomponent of self-advocacy. The therapeutic theatre intervention thematically centered on the characters advocating for their needs. The Drama Therapy Role Play Interview (DTRPI), an established role-play measure developed by Snow (2009) for participants with disabilities, was used as the preand post-test measure. A single-sample t-test was conducted to determine if any difference existed between the pre-test and post-test scores for assertiveness. The participants scored significantly higher in the post-test (M = .88, SD = .92) than in the pre-test t(12) = (3.48), p = 0.005. The agent of change could have been achieved through several means: education, discussion, or embodiment.