Coach Bill / Dad, Entrepreneur Special Educator, American Political Scientist, Writer, Musician.

Scalzi Originals Foundation The purpose of the foundation is to facilitate a revitalization of community by introducing fun, effective, practical activities for youth and adults.  The cognitive-physical empowerment aspect of the Scalzi Originals Foundation of youth and their families is central to the vision. This includes providing our services to individuals on the autism spectrum, with Downs Syndrome and other special needs. Likewise, the focused development of executive function skills, soft skills, motor coordination and emotional intelligence is at the core of the foundations mission. Sensitive to the lack of access of such programs in both affluent and poor neighborhoods, the foundation focuses on using social entrepreneurial practices to help bring about the revitalization of communities through its diverse actions. Acting as a social enterprise, the inception of specific programs, like skateboarding, basketball, soccer and baseball, chess, music, art, ga...

The idea of creating your own home storytelling theater can serve as a way for young children, especially those with special needs to appreciate different points of view and to even act out those differing outlooks in a safe setting. This metacognitive activity helps one rethink how they approach their thought and the world. Each character acted out has the potential to have a storyline that the puppeteer assumes during the story time. Repetition of an activity like this stays within certain established parameters, yet retains a novelty each time a story is performed in the theater.   My first storytelling theater was fashioned out of plywood. I had painted it over to look like a castle and added a knight to stand guard by the castle draw bridge. Ivy crawled up the castle walls. In my second theater, I may end up doing it out of tempered hardboard and using cloth string as ‘latches,’ to tie the different hardboard sections of the mini theater together. This makes it ...