FunVis: Examining Functional Near Vision in Children with Severe Cerebral Palsy who Rely on Looking Skills to Communicate

Description

Children with cerebral palsy often rely on their looking skills to communicate with others including to access high and low tech AAC systems. It is well recognised however that children with severe cerebral palsy affecting their whole body are particularly vulnerable to problems with aspects of the visual system. This may manifest not only in impairments in visual functions (such as low visual acuity, visual field defects, and other disorders related to the broader class of deficits known as cerebral visual impairment), but also difficulties with functional vision (using looking skills effectively).

Where support is available for clinicians to examine aspects of functional vision, instruments typically require children to have reached particular developmental thresholds that preclude developmentally younger children, or they are dependent on children’s ability to manipulate objects, point or speak as a response modality.

There exists a long-standing concern therefore that functional vision is not routinely assessed in young children with the most severe physical disabilities, and that difficulties with looking behaviours can often be present in children without drawing professional comment.

This presentation will describe a new simple screening procedure that is being constructed to examine the presence or absence of behaviours that are indicative of normal functional vision in children with severe cerebral palsy. The visual skills screened are: (i) gaze fixation, (ii) gaze shifting, (iii) tracking moving objects.

Important features of the procedure are that it is designed to be carried out by non-vision specialists and without the need for extensive training beyond familiarisation with the procedures, and that it should take no more than 10-15 minutes to complete.

Period	Sept 2016
Event title	Communication Matters National AAC Conference
Event type	Conference
Location	Leeds, United KingdomShow on map
Degree of Recognition	National