The Purple Patch Approach
We believe that learning should be creative, joyful and full of magic.
At Purple Patch Arts, we do learning differently. Our ‘Purple Patch Approach’ uses creative activities, inclusive learning methods, and environments that involve and inspire learning-disabled people to engage with learning in a positive and impactful way. It supports people to explore ideas, themes and topics in ways which are accessible, imaginative and joyful! We work with people of all ages and support needs; our approach allows everyone to access our work in their own way and empowers people to learn in the way that best suits them, and to become powerful advocates for themselves and their community.
We’re ambitious in the subjects we cover; we don’t see any reason that a person with even the most complex needs can’t engage with Shakespeare, maths or any other subject, and we see it as our job to bring them to life creatively! Our Projects have explored subjects ranging from the social history of learning disability, to mindfulness, to feelings around toilets, and our Lifelong Learning Programmes follow a custom-written Scheme of Work which covers a range of age-appropriate topics, including English, Maths, Science, History, Geography and lots more! In all our work, we enable our participants to be positively challenged and inspired by learning about, and engaging with, the world around them.
We apply the ‘Purple Patch Approach’ to everything we do including our Lifelong Learning Programmes, Purple Steering Group, our research work and our evaluation methods.
To celebrate our 15th Birthday in October 2024, we hosted ‘The Purple Patch Approach’, a day of interactive workshops and expert insights, to encourage other organisations to use our approach in their work to involve, inspire and engage learning-disabled people:
Creative Activities
All of our work is delivered using arts-based methods, including music, drama, visual art, movement, and literature. Using the arts to facilitate learning has been found to support engagement (Kirby et al., 2023), improve motivation (Abedin, 2010), and help people to develop analytical and interpretive skills (Chadwick & Stannett, 2000). Furthermore, arts participation has been reported to help increase self-esteem (Arts Council England, 2004), enhance social experiences (Ho, 2010; Jindal-Snape & Vettraino, 2007) and support emotional expression (Hall, 2012). The ‘Purple Patch Approach’ embraces exploration and meets each individual where they are, creating environments that involve and stimulate them to engage with learning in a positive and beneficial way.
Inclusive Learning Methods
When combined with creative activities, the following inclusive learning methods help us to bring ideas to life:
Group Activity
All of our work is delivered using group activity. Participants are supported by staff and peers, which builds social skills and creates supportive environments in which people can thrive.
Kirby (2023) reported that learning at Purple Patch Arts was “social and facilitated opportunities for collaboration […] and the development of social relationships” (p.246). Learning in a social environment and in collaboration with a group has been found to create an enhanced learning experience (Prince, 2004), and to enable the co-creation of knowledge through active participation, which in turn helps individuals to learn better (Petress, 2008).
Multi-Sensory Activity
We use a mixture of sight, sound, taste, smell and touch to inspire participants and provide multiple ways for people to access topics.
Studies have found that combining multi-sensory activity and arts-based approaches creates an accessible approach to learning which supports learning-disabled people, including those with complex needs or sensory impairments, to engage with a variety of topics (Corradi et al., 2022; Kirby, 2023).
Gamification
Quite literally, making a game of something! This supports learning by building in repetition in a fun, accessible way, which helps to support engagement. As one of our participants put it: “you are enjoying whilst learning so much that you didn’t know that you’re learning”.
Gamification also promotes healthy competition (Kirby, 2023), motivation (Standen et al., 2005), the development of skills and knowledge (Brown et al., 2013), and provides opportunities for immediate feedback (Boyle et al., 2016).
Physical Experience
Connecting to learning physically; an example is copying an action or tracing a drawing. This allows participants to dive deeper into a topic through their own experience.
Physical experience is an active learning approach, which has been found to support engagement and promote lifelong learning (Stefanou et al., 2012), as well as allow participants to embody ideas and then reflect on their experiences (Kirby, 2023). Furthermore, physical experiences such as role-playing activities can support communication (Chan, 2012) and social skills (Lancia, 2021).
Imaginative Discovery
Asking participants to access learning through a process of ‘make-believe’ or imagining.
Using imaginative discovery can help participants to access experiences and opportunities they may not get to access in real life, such as travelling to space or trekking through a rainforest (Kirby, 2023). Furthermore, imaginative storytelling has been found to enhance learning-disabled people’s quality of life, through building sense of purpose, confidence, and social connection (Grove, 2015).
Environments that Involve and Inspire
Through the work of Dr Melissa Kirby and the Purple Research Group, we realised that the ‘how’ of our approach is just as important as the ‘what’. The creative activities and inclusive learning methods are not enough by themselves; to ensure our approach is its most impactful, it has to be delivered in the right way. As Melissa describes it, you can bake someone the most beautiful cake for their birthday, but it’s not going to be much of a present if you shove it in their face! At Purple Patch, our delivery of the Purple Patch Approach is informed by our organisational values and the following mechanisms: we create safe spaces, we use a careful balance of freedom and structure, we value our participant’s voices highly, and we’re not afraid of positive risk-taking (Kirby, 2023).
Safe Spaces
We create physically, socially and emotionally safe environments. People form the basis of this safe environment, through trust – and this is multi-directional, between staff, participants, and peers.
Freedom Within Structure
Structure provides routine and familiarity, while freedom provides options, encourages autonomy through being supported to make choices, and enables an atmosphere that is flexible, fun, not strict, and relaxed. The balance is important; too much of one or the other can negatively impact accessibility (too much structure) or wellbeing (too much freedom/not enough routine).
Valuing Participant Voice
Listening to, and acting upon, the thoughts and opinions of our participants is fundamental to our work. We value the voices of participants highly, and build our work around their wants and needs. We’re passionate about building a fairer, more inclusive society, and are empowering participants to become powerful advocates for themselves and their community.
Positive Risk-Taking
Providing levels and options of challenge, as well as an appropriate level of encouragement and guidance, which encourages participant autonomy and supports engagement. This enables people to reach their potential, experience challenge and meet their goals, and is built around social interactions – the participants are in control of their support, and are not being impacted by assumptions or ableism limiting their engagement.
Did you know Dr Melissa Kirby and the Purple Research Group wrote a whole PhD about Purple Patch Arts? Find out more on our Purple Research Group page!