Some say that seeing is believing. But in a tour conducted in an environment of complete darkness, one has to, literally, walk by faith and not by sight. In fact, the inability to see, results in a greater need to believe and trust – trusting everyone else present in the pitch-black setting, including the visually impaired guide leading the tour.

Dialogue in the Dark (DiD) Singapore hopes to help tour participants develop this quality of trust, along with other social skills like communication and teamwork, at its father-child bonding tour – Father and Child Connect (FC Connect) – which runs till the end of January 2011.

About Dialogue in the Dark - Singapore

DiD Singapore is a collaboration between Ngee Ann Polytechnic and Dialogue Social Enterprise. Originally founded in Germany in 1988, DiD has impacted over six million visitors in 30 countries worldwide.

Sited in Ngee Ann Polytechnic, the DiD Singapore exhibition is the first permanent DiD site in Southeast Asia, and the first in the world to be located within an educational institution.

The exhibition at DiD consists of a series of rooms that are in complete darkness. Visitors are led through simulated environments by visually impaired guides who are professionally trained to lead the tours. In addition to the guided tours, DiD Singapore also conducts corporate and educational workshops for companies and schools respectively.

Father and Child Connect in the Dark

Unlike these guided tours or workshops, however, FC Connect is specifically catered towards busy working fathers and their children aged  10 years and above.

Before entering the 90-minute tour, participants are required to place all light-emitting devices in the lockers provided. This prevents people from ‘cheating’ and using a watch or mobile phone to move around the dark exhibition.

In the tour, father-child teams have to follow the visually impaired guide’s instructions and complete various activities in total darkness. These activities include a treasure hunt for blocks of words in a ‘city,’ forming a phrase about family cohesion with the words found, identifying fruits and vegetables at the ‘supermarket,’ and thinking of a three-course meal which would suit the preferences of both father and child.

While the tour activities are conducted by the visually impaired guide, there are also pre-tour and post-tour activities conducted in the light, by Ngee Ann Polytechnic student interns at DiD Singapore.

The pre-tour activities, such as guessing objects while being blindfolded, promote teamwork and prepare the participants for the tour. The post-tour activity of taking a photo and designing a photo frame together also promotes team work and allows participants to have something to remind them of their time spent at DiD Singapore.

The Impact of Connecting in the Dark

By having to complete tasks together without being able to rely on their sense of sight, fathers and children are challenged to improve their communication skills with each other. This helps to enhance interaction and foster team bonding between father and child.

The experience in the dark also helps participants understand the lives of the visually impaired, provoking a change in perspectives.  With ordinary routines becoming challenging tasks in the dark, a reversal of roles is also created.

Sighted people lose the familiarity of relying on their sense of sight, while the Visually Impaired are guides and become the ones with more mobility and confidence. For this writer who attended the tour as well, it was difficult to believe that the  guide who spoke with great confidence was, in fact, a visually impaired  and not merely a student intern who had memorised the tour route.

Moreover, roles are reversed in the father-child relationship. Instead of the father being the authoritative figure who usually takes the lead, the child may have to take the lead in some of the tour activities, and both have to lead each other to help each other move around the exhibition.

For the father-child team of Mr Sim Chuan Hup, 50, and his 16-year-old son, Jaben, the tour was very effective in building relationship and improving communication. Mr Sim said, “It’s a different experience in the dark, though we were mentally prepared. You need to adjust, slow down.” “Trust is very important,” Jaben added.

Both found the ‘supermarket’ to be their favourite part of the tour. Mr Sim explained that though they go to the supermarket frequently, identifying fruits and vegetables in the dark required them to rely more on their senses of touch and smell. Jaben agreed: “In our [normal] daily lives, you don’t have to do this because you can rely on sight.”

The People Behind FC Connect

FC Connect is the brainchild of two 20-year-old students at Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Melody Sim and Julia Tay. Both are final-year students in the Psychology & Community Services diploma course and have been doing an internship at DiD Singapore since October 2010. FC Connect is part of their final year project (FYP).

Having heard about Eat with Your Family Day, they thought of doing an FYP about the family. However, they observed that, in Singapore families, “mothers usually take the initiative” in building relationships, said Melody. “We want to see dads taking the initiative.”

With that in mind, they decided to focus on father-child relationships, and suggested having tours at DiD Singapore which are geared towards improving father-child relationships.

In particular, each tour involves only one father-child team entering the darkened exhibition. Julia explained: “We wanted to focus on the individual families,” instead of the communication between participants from different father-child teams.

It is hoped that the programme would “improve communication, reduce tension and enhance interaction” between fathers and their children, she added.

Fathers interested to take part in this tour should book their visit soon – the tour costs $40 per pair, but the first 10 pairs will be entitled to a 35% discount, while the next 15 pairs will be entitled to a 20% discount. FC Connect is ongoing until 31 January 2011.

For more information:

• call DiD Singapore at 6460 6222 or

• email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

• visit its official website

• check out its Facebook page

• check out its Twitter page.

About the Author: The DadsforLife Resource Team comprises local content writers and experts, including psychologists, counsellors, educators and social service professionals, dedicated to developing useful resources for dads.