Some children with multiple disabilities and cerebral visual impairment can engage when enclosed by a ‘tent’: Is this due to Balint syndrome?

Abstract

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.