A developmental approach to preschool vision screening.

A developmental approach to preschool vision screening is described. The choice of acuity testing material in this test is determined by the child's capabilities, assessed prior to acuity testing. When compared with the Society for Prevention of Blindness test, this approach yields approximately half the number of untestables. Further, the acuity data from the two screening tests are quite similar, and both agree well with data from an additional screening by a pediatric ophthalmologist. Screening of preschool children usually requires a number of compromises in methods felt to be ideal for adults. Sacrifices in cost (i.e., additional personnel to assist the tester), additional effort (i.e., prior training of the children), or precision of acuity measures (i.e., cruder picture type targets for all children and use of isolated targets) are typically made to assure testability. These problems have been minimized by the Experimental method. Because of its low untestability rate and its apparently valid acuity data, this developmental vision screening test can be recommended as a cost effective approach to preschool vision screening. Previous research has shown that ratings of a child's behavior during this developmentally oriented vision screening test predict results of diagnostic cognitive tests as accurately as extensive tests designed exclusively for developmental screening. This test is then extremely cost effective when used for comprehensive preschool screening.

Duke Scholars

Author Claudia Kay Jones Pathology