Tag: Celebrations

Celebrating Halloween (CVI style)

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Happy Halloween!

Two of the “10 characteristics of CVI” are color and complexity. This means bright, highly-saturated hues that are solid colors (with little or no patterns) tend to be easier for someone with Cortical Visual Impairment to visually process.

Red is one of the first colors our brains learn to process as infants, so it’s no wonder Elmo is often a favorite of little ones with CVI! He is solid, bright red and easily identifiable with his simple eyes and big, orange nose.

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Pictured: little girl dressed in an Elmo costume, surrounded by 4 Elmo dolls.

Another CVI characteristic is novelty, which means a child with CVI will be drawn to the familiar since new people/places/things are much more challenging to visually process. Someone with CVI cannot simply “look” and learn what something new is; they must learn the distinct, salient features that categorize objects for what they are, which means new things require building a new framework of understanding in the brain…whereas familiar objects are ones the brain has already learned to “see” (process).

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Celebrations and CVI Strategies

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We recently celebrated a big milestone in our daughter’s life: she has been surgery-free for an entire year!!! Because Rosalie has a brain condition called hydrocephalus, she had surgery to place a piece of hardware called a shunt (which manages the condition) at two days old. Unfortunately, shunts are notorious for having complications; 40% of shunts fail within a year, 50% fail within two years, and 80% fail within ten years. Rosalie’s first shunt developed an infection and her second malfunctioned. They say the “third time’s the charm,” and we are so happy that this 3rd shunt has lasted an entire YEAR without complications!

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This 1-year “Shuntiversary” called for a celebration – but those of you that have children with Cortical Visual Impairment (CVI) know that parties come with some challenges.

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