VOA标准英语2014--Illusionist Uses Magic Skills to Help Disabled

 

Illusionist Uses Magic Skills to Help Disabled

GERMANTOWN, MARYLAND—

Kevin Spencer saw his first magician perform when he was five years old. He remembers vividly¹ telling his mother, ”When I grow up, I’m going to be a magician.”

He has been a magician for more than 30 years, performing on stages around the world with his wife, Cindy, bringing tricks and magical illusions to millions of people.

But early in his career, a bad car accident changed the focus of his work.

“The car I was in was crushed by a tractor trailer,” he recalled. “I woke up in neurological intensive care with a closed brain injury and a lower spinal² cord injury and spent almost a year in therapy just trying to regain³ the skills I’d lost as a result of the accident.”

Spencer's personal struggle made him think about using magic tricks as a tool for therapy. So he teamed up with a group of professional therapists to explore the option. “What we found is that each one of the magic tricks that we teach in our program helps accomplish all those same therapeutic⁴ goals that are found in more traditional forms of therapy,” he said.

 So he started conducting workshops all over the world, teaching magic tricks to children and adults with varying degrees of disabilities. During the 50-minute session, participants learn and master several magic tricks, and then perform them in front of the group.

The workshops are designed to address three key areas that can be found in traditional forms of therapy: dexterity⁵, motivation and social skills.

Spencer explains that tricks involving foam⁶ balls and paper clips, for example, work on fine motor dexterity and eye-hand coordination⁷, and many tricks also involve gross motor coordination. Just as importantly, he adds, it’s the motivation kids feel to learn tricks that makes magic therapy successful for them.

“If you go to a child and say ‘I need you to do this move 10 times every day for the next week,' they might do it a couple of times but they’re certainly not going to do it 10 times a day for a week,” he said. “But if I can find a magic trick that uses this move, then they’re going to go home and they’re going to practice that magic trick over and over and over again.”

And once the students master the tricks, they are eager to show it off. That helps them develop their social skills, Spencer says, which in turn, helps their self-confidence.

That makes magic therapy an all-inclusive, holistic⁸ approach to developing motor skills, cognitive⁹ skills, perceptual skills and social skills, he concludes. "And when you’re done, you actually have a really cool magic trick you can show somebody.”

Feeling 'wizardy'

Liam Shannon, 10, has a form of autism. Mastering a few simple tricks like making a pair of red foam balls magically move from one hand into the other brought out a variety of emotions.

“It made me feel ‘wizardy’,” he said with a gleeful smile, “serious, happy, proud…. it was great!”

His mother, Gita Maitra, says it was clear that the workshop had made her son feel good about himself.

“Because he realized he had accomplished¹⁰ something. He’d seen it, he observed it, he learned it, and he did it,” she said, adding, it made her feel good, too.

The American Occupational Therapy Association has recognized the use of magic tricks as an authentic¹¹ method for achieving therapeutic goals, but beyond the physical benefits, Spencer says seeing kids like Liam come alive during a workshop is the best magic of all.

“We can be on a stage and get the applause of thousands of people, and that is nothing compared to the smile that comes across a kid’s face and when they say ‘Look! I did it’ and it’s like, yeah, you did!”

Spencer plans to devote more and more of his time with people with disabilities, to help them discover their inner wizard.

Magic as therapy

1 vividly   

adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地

参考例句：

• The speaker pictured the suffering of the poor vividly.演讲者很生动地描述了穷人的生活。
• The characters in the book are vividly presented.这本书里的人物写得栩栩如生。

2 spinal   

adj.针的，尖刺的，尖刺状突起的；adj.脊骨的，脊髓的

参考例句：

• After three days in Japan,the spinal column becomes extraordinarily flexible.在日本三天，就已经使脊椎骨变得富有弹性了。
• Your spinal column is made up of 24 movable vertebrae.你的脊柱由24个活动的脊椎骨构成。

3 regain   

vt.重新获得，收复，恢复

参考例句：

• He is making a bid to regain his World No.1 ranking.他正为重登世界排名第一位而努力。
• The government is desperate to regain credibility with the public.政府急于重新获取公众的信任。

4 therapeutic   

adj.治疗的，起治疗作用的；对身心健康有益的

参考例句：

• Therapeutic measures were selected to fit the patient.选择治疗措施以适应病人的需要。
• When I was sad,music had a therapeutic effect.我悲伤的时候，音乐有治疗效力。

5 dexterity   

n.(手的)灵巧，灵活

参考例句：

• You need manual dexterity to be good at video games.玩好电子游戏手要灵巧。
• I'm your inferior in manual dexterity.论手巧，我不如你。

6 foam   

v./n.泡沫，起泡沫

参考例句：

• The glass of beer was mostly foam.这杯啤酒大部分是泡沫。
• The surface of the water is full of foam.水面都是泡沫。

7 coordination   

n.协调，协作

参考例句：

• Gymnastics is a sport that requires a considerable level of coordination.体操是一项需要高协调性的运动。
• The perfect coordination of the dancers and singers added a rhythmic charm to the performance.舞蹈演员和歌手们配合得很好，使演出更具魅力。

8 holistic   

adj.从整体着眼的，全面的

参考例句：

• There is a fundamental ambiguity in the use of word "whole" in recent holistic literature.在近代的整体主义著作中，“整体”这个词的用法极其含混。
• In so far as historicism is technological,its approach is not piecemeal,but "holistic".仅就历史决定论是一种技术而论，它的方法不是渐进的，而是“整体主义的”。

9 cognitive   

adj.认知的，认识的，有感知的

参考例句：

• As children grow older,their cognitive processes become sharper.孩子们越长越大，他们的认知过程变得更为敏锐。
• The cognitive psychologist is like the tinker who wants to know how a clock works.认知心理学者倒很像一个需要通晓钟表如何运转的钟表修理匠。

10 accomplished   

adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的

参考例句：

• Thanks to your help,we accomplished the task ahead of schedule.亏得你们帮忙,我们才提前完成了任务。
• Removal of excess heat is accomplished by means of a radiator.通过散热器完成多余热量的排出。

11 authentic   

a.真的，真正的；可靠的，可信的，有根据的

参考例句：

• This is an authentic news report. We can depend on it. 这是篇可靠的新闻报道, 我们相信它。
• Autumn is also the authentic season of renewal. 秋天才是真正的除旧布新的季节。