This article reports on a study of the methods that 21 ophthalmologists used to assess the visual acuity of children with multiple impairments and the difficulties they encountered. Additional means of assessing visual function and alternative means of communicating the results are suggested. (Author/DB)

Assessment of visual acuity, using Teller Acuity Cards, was combined with observations of behavioral state to indicate central nervous system activation in 24 individuals with mental retardation. Results indicate that forced-choice preferential-looking technique can be used to test visual acuity in this population unless the participant is drowsy.…

Most studies of vision in persons with Alzheimer's disease either exclude those with advanced dementia or are unable to assess their vision adequately, and therefore, improperly report these persons' visual acuity status. In this study, visual acuity was assessed using the ETDRS Snellen-type acuity chart and Teller Acuity Cards. The Teller Acuity…

Techniques used by the Special Visual Assessment Clinic for the Handicapped at the University of California-Berkeley School of Optometry are designed to serve handicapped children and adults generally considered "difficult to assess." This article describes the clinic's assessment goals, clientele, and methods for assessing visual ability and…

Intended for teachers of deaf-blind and severely handicapped students as well as for resource or itinerant teachers in the area of vision who have recently begun to serve low functioning students, the manual provides information on vision and on vision assessment. The manual serves three functions. It: (1) prepares teachers for participation in…

Technology has been used to measure visual acuity with the severely or profoundly mentally retarded child. The following categories of technology have been used for assessment: the recording of visual fixation within the habituation paradigm; equipment to measure eye movements and pursuits; operant techniques; and electrodiagnostic techniques…

As follow up to a study which compared forced-choice preferential looking (FPL) with pattern visual evoked potential (VEP), this study increased the VEP success rate and improved agreement between the FPL and VEP acuity estimates by using horizontal bar stimuli for young preverbal children (n=17) with nystagmus. (Author/DB)

This article describes addition of a "learn a routine" procedure to functional visual assessments of children with severe neurological and physical disabilities. The procedure capitalizes on the child's interest of the moment and provides information on the child's patterns of responses, ability to accommodate to variations of a stimulus, and…

Presents a checklist that was created so that parents, teachers, and others could obtain from vision specialists information necessary to ameliorate learning conditions efficiently. (FL)

Elementary-aged students (n=106) who had been referred for evaluation as possibly mildly/educably mentally handicapped were administered audiometric and visual acuity tests. Discriminant function analysis found no relationship between test results and classification/placement as mildly handicapped. Alternate testing procedures are recommended for…