Fragile X

Fragile X Syndrome is a genetically inherited learning difficulty which can greatly range in the severity of it's symptoms. The condition affects men worse than women but this is complicated by the fact that women can be carriers of the condition whilst having mild to moderate learning difficulties themselves, but to all intents and purposes want to (and can) lead a normal life.

The London IDEAS Genetic Knowledge Park (a lottery funded organisation based within Great Ormond Street hospital) approached the Design Laboratory to create an information DVD to support genetic counselling services already on offer to a very specific audience -- female carriers of Fragile X who wanted to start a family and may or may not have learning difficulties themselves. The aim of the DVD was to communicate basic genetic information and choices in an easy to understand format that was engaging and non-directive.

For this reason it was decided that animation was the best way to communicate with the audience, but it was important that the animation style fresh and young without being seen as childish or patronising, so in pre-production there were several focus groups held through the Fragile X Society with female carriers of Fragile X who approved all stage of the design and script writing process.

To keep the animation of the approved concept fresh and original the Design Laboratory then art directed students from the Character Animation course at Central Saint Martins, who animated the whole DVD as part of their coursework. The course was paid for their work and the money re-invested in new equipment.

Upon completion, the DVD was subject to a thorough assessment and received uniformly positive reviews. It is still in use today.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• health
• animation
• educational
• arts
• Great Ormond Street
• fragile X syndrome

[CSMDesignLab]

Thanks for the comment Janet, whilst Design Laboratory's role was to facilitate the design process rather than dictate the medical info in the video, I do know that the video was intended to be viewed in conjunction with a session with a trained genetic counselor who would go into more detail around the different options...

[MrRositarococo]

congratulation for the video!! the english is my 2 languague and was so clearly for me!!

[janetvalentine1]

I don't like the way this video waits until she's pregnant to consider testing. Testing should take place before pregnancy, if you think FX runs in you'd family... then it could mention in-vitro options to dispose of the blastocysts with the FX gene before implantation. My family thinks abortion is the only solution, and they don't believe in abortion, so they think that nothing can be done to stop this mutation from being passed down, but there is... however it requires testing before pregnancy