CVI and ART, (CVIART) SENSING THINGS DIFFERENTLY: DEVELOPING UNDERSTANDING OF CEREBRAL VISUAL IMPAIRMENT THROUGH MUSIC, DANCE AND ART COMPOSITION

本建议通过理论与艺术、音乐和舞蹈等创意领域的结合，为儿童最常见的视觉障碍形式——脑性视觉障碍（CVI）的学术理论工作与家长、照顾者、专业人员以及儿童自身对脑性视觉障碍的理解提供了一座桥梁。根据研究估计，英国5-10%的人口可能患有一种或另一种形式的CVI，在所有主流学校的30个班级中平均有一个孩子可能受到影响。提议的奖学金的主要目的是通过音乐，舞蹈和艺术，第一次提供解释和理解CVI的方法，更重要的是了解患有CVI的孩子可能会感知到什么。没有见过的东西是学不到东西的。这一显而易见的声明强调，必须确保有机会参与导致学习的生活各个方面，认识到儿童时期的学习是人类发展的最基本因素。经典的学习方法往往是有组织和有结构的，但我们都知道，当我们快乐、投入和有动力的时候，我们所学到的东西是我们童年最关键的时刻。那么患有脑性视觉障碍的儿童是如何以这种方式参与进来的呢？这个问题的答案取决于两个基本概念：获取和参与。要实现无障碍，就要确保每一个患有脑视觉障碍的人所交流和接触的每一个元素都能被感知、欣赏和理解。这些概念将帮助他们理解他们的世界，以及它与我们的世界有何不同，即使我们所看到的画面的细节可能是相同的。了解CVI及其对孩子的影响将会得到父母和专业人士的更多支持，但解释CVI是困难的，因为它是一种真正看不见的残疾，甚至对孩子来说也是看不见的，因为视觉信息是在大脑的无意识部分处理的。每个患有CVI的孩子对世界的感知都不一样，而且CVI通常是动态的，所以他们的视觉世界会发生很大的变化，每时每刻，从清醒和快乐到不知所措和恐惧。艺术已经被成功地用作一种教学方法，因为许多原因，传统的学习对孩子来说可能是具有挑战性的。这个项目更进一步，通过艺术的诠释来解释CVI儿童体验世界的不同方式。这有可能开辟新的方式，让艺术家们可以利用他们的专业知识、技能和激情来接触大量的儿童，但更重要的是，通过推进这些基本步骤，并向其他人展示如何通过使用精心匹配的材料来实现这一目标，以使受到严重和中度影响的儿童能够接触到，国际上可能积累的利益可能是革命性的。为了接触到患有CVI的儿童和成人社区，我将与苏格兰CVI密切合作，这是一个为支持父母和照顾者以及患有CVI的儿童和成人而创建的慈善机构。自2017年网站推出以来，cviscotland.org已经在英国注册了超过16500名用户，在全球160个国家拥有近6万名用户（来源谷歌Analytics）。苏格兰用户（5500人）占英国用户总数的33%。该网站有一个资源部分，允许传播其他组织的重要信息，慈善机构已同意支持我的这个项目。我是CVI苏格兰的顾问，定期审查内容并支持他们的项目。我也有广泛的人际关系网络（正式和非正式的）。

This proposal provides a bridge between the academic theoretical work concerning Cerebral Visual Impairment (CVI), the most common form of childhood visual impairment, and the understanding of CVI needed by parents, carers, and professionals in their supporting roles as well as the children themselves, through the interweaving of theory and the creative areas of art, music and dance. Estimates based on research suggest between 5-10% of the population of the UK may have one form of CVI or another, and on average one child in every class of thirty across all mainstream schools is likely to be affected. The main objective of the proposed fellowship is to provide for the very first time through music, dance and art, ways of explaining and understanding CVI, and more importantly understanding what a child with CVI may perceive. One cannot learn from what one does not see. This obvious statement underpins the necessity of ensuring access to all aspects of life that bring about learning, recognizing that learning during childhood is the most fundamental element of human development. Classical approaches to learning tend to be organized and structured, yet we all know that what we learned when we were happy, engaged and motivated stands out as being the most pivotal of moments of our childhood. So how can children with cerebral visual impairment be engaged in this way? The answer to this question rests upon two fundamental concepts: Access, and engagement.Access is brought about by ensuring that for each individual person with cerebral visual impairment every element of what is communicated and engaged with can actually be perceived, appreciated and understood.Engagement results from creating compelling visual aspects, combined with creativity and originalityThese concepts will help them to understand their world and how it looks different to ours, even when the detail of the picture we are both looking at, may be the same. Understanding CVI and the impact it has on a child will lead to greater support by parents and professionals, but explaining CVI is difficult, because it is a truly invisible disability, invisible even to the child, for visual information is processed in the non-conscious parts of the brain. Each child with CVI perceives their world differently, and CVI is typically dynamic, so their visual world can alter significantly, from moment to moment, from one of lucidity and happiness to one of being overwhelmed and terrified. The arts have been successfully used as a teaching approach where, for many reasons, traditional learning may be challenging for a child. This fellowship goes a step further, to explain through artistic interpretations the alternative ways the world is experienced for children with CVI. This has the potential to open up new ways in which artists can use their expertise, skills and passion to reach enormous numbers of children, but more importantly by taking forward these fundamental steps and showing others how this can be brought about by using materials carefully matched to be accessible to the profoundly and moderately affected children, the benefits that could accrue internationally could be revolutionary. In order to reach the community of children and adults with CVI, I will work closely with CVI Scotland, a charity that was created to support parents and carers, and children and adults with CVI. Since the website's launch in 2017, cviscotland.org has registered over 16,500 UK users, and is approaching 60,000 users world wide, from 160 countries (source Google Analytics). Scotland users (5,500) accounts for 33% of all UK users. The website has a resources section where salient information from other organisations is allowed to be disseminated, and the charity has agreed to support me with this project. I am an advisor to CVI Scotland and regularly review content and support their projects. I also have a wide network of personal contacts (formal and informal).