As parents and educators, the most important aspect of our work is to help our children prepare for a bright and challenging future.  But if we don’t also teach them how to deal with life’s difficulties, many simply won’t realize their full potential.  For those students who face additional challenges, our job includes finding strategies to move them into becoming a more competent learner.

Kevin Spencer is a strong advocate for arts-integrated teaching methods for all children. However, he has also participated in extensive research on the benefits of arts integration for special learners, i.e. students with learning disabilities as well as those who are gifted and exceptional. The Hocus Focus™ Project is an extension of Spencer’s philosophy that the arts have the potential to impact the reality in which we live, learn, work and heal – “Art Across the Lifespan.”

Learning to perform a simple magic trick can be a powerful means of drawing on multiple learning modalities (visual, aural, and kinesthetic) allowing children to learn facts and concepts they can see, touch, manipulate, and talk about.

Teaching magic tricks in the context of an educational setting or activity can allow students to experience successes in many areas (a holistic approach) as well as change the way they believe others perceive them and help them with social acceptance.

The Hocus Focus™ activities combine education and imagination to help children improve their abilities in planning, sequencing, organizing tasks and movements, fine motor skills, gross motor function/coordination, concentration, memory skills, communication, social behaviors, and so much more!

School Districts

Students

• Lecture-Demonstrations
• Workshops and Classroom Activities
• Residencies

Teachers

• In-depth training on arts-integrated teaching methods
• Demonstration Teaching
• Arts in STEM Education
• Arts in Special Education
• The Common Core and Discovery Learning Through the Arts

Parents

• PTA/PTO Presentations
• Workshops for Parents
• Workshops for Parents and Children