KAYDEN LIKES TO MOVE IT MOVE IT WITH THE CLOWNDOCTORS

Hearts & Minds Edinburgh

The Hearts & Minds 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 in hospital or attend one of the schools the Clowndoctors regularly visit. Here Emily Goodwin, aka Dr Zap, recalls a very special visit with a young boy called Kayden.

“In my most recent work as a Clowndoctor I have been lucky enough to work with Children’s Hospices Across Scotland. When the pandemic started, our work moved online and the hospice embraced this format as a vital way to continue to reach families in what for many, was 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. 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 the hospice, 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.

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.”