After careful assessment, the results provide us with numerous strategies for improving visual skills. This does not mean we get struck and only provide one kind of stimulus. For example, in a recent assessment of the attention to color, parents, caregivers and therapist mentioned the child’s preference for red and yellow. In my direct assessment using large pieces of shiny fabric, I confirm this is true in both lateral fields. With latency, the child does look at both these colors with 2 minutes. I then presented green to the right and left lateral fields and waited 5 minutes for the child to look on each side. There was no looking to this green shiny fabric.
I set the child up in an active learning activity area with the green fabric draped up on his right, slightly touching his right hand to create familiarity with this color. The child makes accidental movements that cause the fabric to move. The shiny fabric is also reflecting light that increases the appearance of movement. Within a few days, this child is moving this fabric purposefully building increased color skills, understanding how his body is connected to the outside world, and building right field skills.
Color is such an important support for children with CVI to visually attend and to recognize. Just because there is greater or faster attention to some colors, this does not mean other colors are not accessible. If fact, if you make all objects the same color for a child, you are interrupting their reliance on color to figure out and distinguish one item from another.
cvi teacher 