Description
Clinical experience and examination of research literature suggests that the term ‘eye-pointing’ is used to describe a range of different ‘looking’ behaviours in children. A lack of consistent description is problematic for several reasons including that it hampers effective communication between professionals and with families. Our proposed classification scale therefore aims to provide a reliable and systematic method for describing looking skills in relation to eye-pointing.Our methods for development and validation of the scale have involved four stages: (1) initial drafting of the classification scale, (2) nominal group process to examine level of consensus in relation to scale content, (3) Delphi survey conducted with a wider group of experts to provide further examination of content validity and user guidance, leading to consensus agreement over two or more rounds of evaluation, (4) examination of inter-rater and test-retest reliability.
The scale provides five narrative descriptions in order of increasing functional limitation to which a child’s looking behaviour can be compared. For example, clear evidence of eye-pointing (level I on the scale) is observed when the child demonstrates a combined ability to fix gaze on an object, then shift gaze to someone’s face, and then return their gaze to the object. Alternatively, they may first fix their gaze on a person, then shift gaze to an object, and then return gaze to the person. The core skill set on which eye-pointing is dependant therefore
includes gaze fixation, disengaging and shifting gaze, and social engagement with others. Applying these skills successfully incorporates also the inhibition of (other) eye movements and maintenance of focused attention. To date, the scale has been used with 50 children and demonstrates excellent levels of reliability.
The scale is freely available and we invite you to explore its use in your clinical practice.
Period | 10 Sept 2017 |
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Event title | Communication Matters : CM2017 National AAC Conference |
Event type | Conference |
Location | Leeds, United KingdomShow on map |
Degree of Recognition | National |
Documents & Links
Related content
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Activity
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Why is eye-pointing difficult for some children? Can we make it easier?
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Oral presentation
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Describing the Visual Skills of Children with Cerebral Palsy Using Eye-Pointing
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Oral presentation
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Towards a description of eye-pointing skills: use of gaze for children with cerebral palsy
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Oral presentation
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Describing eye-pointing in children with severe disabilities
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Oral presentation
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Research Outputs
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The Functional Vision for Communication Questionnaire (FVC-Q): Exploring Parental Report of Non-Speaking Children's Fixation Skills Using a Structured History-Taking Approach
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Eye‐pointing classification in non‐speaking children with severe cerebral palsy
Research output: Contribution to conference › Poster › peer-review
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Use of eye-pointing by children with cerebral palsy: what are we looking at?
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Development and testing of the eye-pointing classification scale for children with cerebral palsy
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Eye-pointing Classification Scale (EpCS)
Research output: Non-textual form › Data set/Database