This article describes and reflects upon the use of diffusely coloured tents to enclose both child and therapist which, in our service, has brought about remarkable transformations in attention, engagement, and understanding for severely impaired children with multiple disabilities and cerebral visual impairment (MDVI). A brief overview of how to construct this simple tent is presented, and the ways in which these tents have proved effective are described by means of two case studies of students with complex needs. The positive impact over a 2-year period was considerable. The changes brought about persisted into typical environments, and parents and carers expressed surprise and delight at the outcome. The proposed explanation is that the children who benefitted had profound impairment in seeing more than one or two items at once (simultanagnosia) due to presumed damage in the posterior parietal lobes of the brain, related to their cerebral palsy, and that elimination of distraction allowed this limited visual function to be recruited, to afford meaningful experience and enhance learning.
Children with profound and multiple disabilities commonly have their visual impairment overlooked when seeking to meet their complex health needs. The act of surrounding a child with little or no apparent visual function by a monochromatic translucent tent can serve to ‘switch on’ a child’s visual system. The aim of the project was to investigate the role of using colour tents to bring about attentional responses in children with complex disabilities including cerebral visual impairment. The evaluation comprises three phases, repeated on four occasions over the space of 4 weeks. The child’s visual attention prior to entering the tent and during the 5 minutes after leaving the tent was recorded. Moreover, the child’s responses and behaviours while in the tent were recorded. Nine children participated in the evaluation, mean age 6 years (range: 5–9 years). All children showed a change in visual behaviour on at least one occasion while in the colour tent. Most children required more than one session before a change in visual behaviour was noted. Only two children showed increase in visual awareness after any session, and there was no sustained effect demonstrated. This feasibility study has demonstrated that a short series of sessions in a colour tent is insufficient to demonstrate the effectiveness of a colour tent in stimulating visual awareness in children with complex needs. The methodology was acceptable to parents and teachers and lessons have been learned which will inform future studies.
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