The Clowndoctors work with children and young people who have many different conditions and one of them is with children that have some level of visual impairment. These young people can be at the Royal Blind School, or in hospital or attend one of the schools the Clowndoctors regularly visit. Here Emily Goodwin, aka Dr Zap, recalls a very special visit at Rachel House, one of the CHAS locations, where they visited with Kayden.
In my most recent work as a Clowndoctor I have been lucky enough to work at CHAS Rachel House. When the pandemic started, our work moved online and Rachel House embraced this format as a vital way to continue to reach families in what has been for many, an incredibly isolating and challenging time. Throughout this period, our interactions with a young boy, Kayden, who has visual impairments, and his family, really stood out for me. Often contact and tactile engagement are an essential form of communication for children with a Visual Impairment, but with the online format this was no longer possible. Sound, and its opposite, silence, became the main forms of communication left for us to use.
Kayden is a teenager the Clowndoctors have known for many years in person at Rachel House, as well as more recently online. He has a degenerative condition which has affected his sight and he is now registered blind and has dementia. In the past, the Clowndoctors would chase him around Rachel House, using all the spaces but particularly in the soft playroom. Online, often visits would involve his younger, very energetic siblings. A visit that stands out for me, was just with him and his Mum.
We were introduced to his toy giraffe ‘Marty’ from the film Madagascar. We know he loves the song ‘Move It’ from the film and we started a version of this, exchanging the words ‘move it, move it’ for ‘Marty, Marty’. He was delighted by this and was very engaged and focused. We left space in the song for him to come in with the words ‘Marty’ or ‘Move it’. Together, we sang an epic version of the song, changing speed and sound levels, being guided by his responses. He was very involved, visibly excited and smiled a lot throughout the visit.
Both his Mum and the Rachel House staff said:
that was amazing, the most interactive and happy I have seen him in a long time.
It felt like we had discovered together, a language and form of communication through song, silence, and sound, that felt just right in that moment.
Please watch part of our visit with Kayden in the video below which was filmed by his mum and shared with us.
Thanks to CHAS for their help and support with our online visits.
Related News
Nothing found.