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
