The Role of Education and Rehabilitation Specialists in the Comprehensive Low Vision Care Process

Within the framework of the comprehensive low vision care process, the overall goals of education and rehabilitation specialists are to maximize the specific skills, self-esteem, and quality of life of individuals with low vision. These specialists are involved in evaluating functional vision, teaching methods to compensate for impaired vision, and addressing psychosocial concerns to meet the needs of individuals in their homes, workplaces, schools, and communities.

The Improvement of Vision by Vision Stimulation and Training: A Review of the Literature

A frequently used approach to the rehabilitation of children with severe irreversible visual impairments is to stimulate or train them to “see” better through the programmed presentation of stimuli and instructions. This article reviews the theoretical and research literature on vision stimulation and vision training to determine if it contains useful guidelines for the construction of vision stimulation and training programs.

Vision and Orientation and Mobility Consultation for Children with Severe Multiple Disabilities

Vision consultants who work with professionals and parents of children with severe multiple impairments perform a professional role that is changing and challenging. Educational planning is unique, since many children with different levels of disabilities must be served in a variety of individual settings. This article discusses the role of orientation and mobility specialists and teacher-consultants for children who have visual impairments and severe multiple disabilities. Examples of programming contributions of both types of vision consultant are given.

An Early Intervention Model for Infants who are Deaf-Blind

This article presents an early intervention model for infants who are deaf-blind that focuses on the significance of infant-caregiver interaction. It proposes intervention strategies to develop contingent responsiveness in caregivers, to promote active learning in infants, to support mutually satisfying exchanges, and to address the exceptional learning needs of these infants.

Outreach Low Vision Services to Children with Deaf-Blindness

This article presents an overview of a model project for delivering comprehensive vision care and educational support services to children who are deaf-blind. It describes the characteristics of the 170 children served by the project—including the conditions that caused their deaf-blindness, other medical conditions, and visual conditions—and the intervention strategies that were recommended.

Can the functional impact of childhood visual impairment be assessed? A preliminary trial of VIS-Ability

It is accepted that support for children with visual impairment should aim at mitigating for the functional impact experienced. Assessment for support should focus on this functional impact. However, it is now common practice that children in Australia are assessed in clinical environments that do not adequately reflect a child’s everyday functional performance. This article presents a preliminary trial that investigated VIS-Ability – a new approach aimed at identifying behaviours that indicate the functional impact of childhood visual impairment. VIS-Ability is a tool that derived from an e-Delphi study in which professionals experienced in the management of children with visual impairment identified four key areas related to functional impact. The behaviours believed to indicate this impact were also identified and included in VIS-Ability, as simple statements that questioned impact on use of vision in the immediate environment, on spontaneous and continuous use of vision, and on coordination of vision with other tasks. A total of 12 children with visual impairment and no additional disabilities consented to participate in the VIS-Ability preliminary trial. All participants completed VIS-Ability (based on behaviours), and an aggregated result was then compared to the child’s performance on a validated, self-reported (activity-based) questionnaire named the Functional Vision Questionnaire for Children and Young People, 36 items (FVQ_CYP 36). When participant results on VIS-Ability were compared to FVQ_CYP (36) scores, an association between the assessment of functional impact made by each instrument (VIS-Ability: FVQ_CYP 36) was evident. Support systems for children with visual impairment must be founded in assessment that reveals the child’s true needs. The preliminary trial presented a new approach to identifying functional impact named VIS-Ability, an approach that identifies impact through the presence of behaviours rather than clinical measurements. Further evaluation of VIS-Ability will reveal whether this approach assists with the development of better clinical and educational understanding of childhood visual impairment.

Visual Development in Students with Visual and Additional Impairments

This study investigated the visual behaviors of 10 students with visual and additional impairments aged of 9–21 who were given a systematic structured program of planned visual stimulation. Although the program improved the students’ visual acuity scores, it did not produce changes in their visual behaviors (eye blink, visual fixation, shift of gaze, turning away from and reaching toward objects).

The Effects of Training on a Young Child with Cortical Visual Impairment: An Exploratory Study

This exploratory study investigated the effects of the components of visual environmental management, visual skills training, and visually dependent task training on the performance of visual behaviors of a young child with cortical visual impairment. These components were implemented by the mother during daily routines.

Intervenção precoce na comunicação pais-bebê com deficiência visual

A deficiência visual congênita, que pode levar à cegueira, tem sido vista como risco para a interação mãe-bebê e para o desenvolvimento psicológico da criança. O bebê que nasce com uma deficiência visual acentuada tem uma relação diferenciada com o mundo, sendo que outras vias de comunicação e percepção terão de ser ativadas para que ele alcance o desenvolvimento. Os pais são de extrema importância para o desenvolvimento desse bebê, o qual, mais do que nunca, necessita deles para entrar em contato com seu ambiente. Nesse sentido, o objetivo deste artigo é revisar a produção científica na área de intervenção precoce com pais e bebês que apresentam deficiência visual congênita. Para isto, identificam-se controvérsias teóricas acerca do desenvolvimento destes bebês, aspectos da intervenção que favorecem a interação pais-bebê e dificuldades metodológicas dos estudos nesta área.

Visual rehabilitation of children with visual impairments

Visual rehabilitation, consisting of visual stimulation and visual training, is a common practice in the education of children with visual impairments. Ferrell and Muir have stated that scientific research into the effects of visual stimulation and training is ambiguous and that therefore stimulation and training should be abandoned. The support for this statement is reviewed by describing the scientific relevance and plausibility of the aims and presuppositions of visual stimulation and training programs as well as the results of 10 empirical intervention studies. The review results are in strong agreement with the claim of Ferrell and Muir to abandon noncontingent visual stimulation. It is hypothesized that it is possibly counterproductive for the adaptive functioning of the brain to show strong visual stimuli in artificial surroundings, which are noncontingent on the behavior of the child. Training of visual functions seems fruitful whenever skills that are ecologically valid and adapted to the individual needs and task demands of the child are trained. However, the empirical evidence is still too sparse to draw convincing conclusions. There is an urgent need for good randomized controlled trials with dependent variables that are relevant to everyday life.