Down's syndrome: vision, visual problems and visual assessment

Presented on 15 May 2008

J. Margaret Woodhouse, Cardiff University

Mohammad Al-Bagdady, Nathan Bromham, Mary Cregg,
Ping Ji, Ffion John, Julie-Anne Little, Julie McClelland,
Val Pakeman, Kathryn J. Saunders, Ruth Stewart

Visual Acuity

Visual Acuity (detail vision)

Contrast sensitivity

Visual Acuity (VA)

Measuring acuity - pictures

Kay pictures

Lea symbols

Measuring acuity (Cardiff test)

Measuring acuity (Teller cards)

Measuring contrast sensitivity

Pelli-Robson

Hiding Heidi

Behavioural acuity

Behavioural contrast sensitivity

Visual Evoked Potentials - VEP's

Mean values, acuity

Mean values , contrast sensitivity

Children with Down's syndrome have poorer vision than their peers.
This applies to children with no other eye defects, and to children wearing their glasses.

Grating resolution acuity – influenced by optics

Julie-Anne Little and Kathryn Saunders

Given practice first with laminated sheets.

Interferometry - bypasses the optics of the eye

Vision is closer to 'normal' when the optics of the eye are bypassed

Coleraine study

• Difference between children with DS and controls was much less when optics were excluded
• Poor quality cornea and lens optics contribute to poor acuity in Down's syndrome

Maximise vision by

• Ensuring regular eye examinations
• Correcting defects with spectacles
• Ensuring tasks are BIG and BOLD

Woodhouse@cf.ac.uk