[Visual acuity testing in pre-school children: a comparison between the Sheridan-Gardiner test and the Räder (broken...

To evaluate the comparability between the well-established Sheridan-Gardiner test (SGT) and a new type of visual acuity test, called the Räder test (RT = broken wheel test) in pre-school children, and to compare test durations of these infant visual acuity tests.

The RT consists of 16 cards with visus values of 0.16, 0.2, 0.25, 0.3, 0.5, 0.6, 0.8 and 1.0. One pair of cards depicting a car is used for testing. On one of the cards the car has intact wheels, on the other the wheels are incomplete, symbolized by a Landolt ring. The child must indicate, at a viewing distance of 3 meters, which of the wheels is incomplete. The SGT consists of seven visus plates: 5/60, 5/36, 5/24, 5/18, 5/12, 5/9 and 5/6. Each level is tested with one letter and can be repeated by the presentation of a further letter (A, H, O, T, U, V, X). The examination distance is 5 meters. The child must indicate, with reference to a card depicting all seven symbols, which letter the examiner is showing. The SGT and RT were performed in a randomized cross-over sequence in 30 children (20male, 10 female) of pre-school age (from 2 years up to and including the age of 5 years, mean 3.4 years +/- 0.77 SD, median 3.0 years). In all cases, the right eye was examined first. Examination duration was assessed for each acuity test, and for each eye separately with a stopwatch. The instruction time was not considered. The possible visual acuity values of both bests were replaced by a unified scale of visual acuity levels (ranging from 1 to 10). A difference of at least two levels was considered as relevant. The results were compared by means of the sign test at a significance level of 0.05.

In particular, for higher visual acuity levels there were considerable differences, with SGT generally showing better results than RT: in 11 of 29 children, in both eyes RT values turned out to be at least 2 lines better than those obtained with SGT. The contrary situation, i. e., favoring SGT by more than 2 lines compared to RT, never occurred. According to the sign test, these differences were significant (p < 0.001). SGT revealed also clearly better visual acuity levels in those 22 children out of the 30, who exhibited differences by 2 lines or more in at least one eye (p < 0.001). The examination procedure with RT revealed problems in making the required directional decisions, especially between 2 and 4 years of age. This might interfere with the test interpretation and lead to distortion of the RT results. Total examination duration did not differ considerably between SGT (1.6 to 5.8 minutes, median 3.0 minutes) and RT (1.6 to 9.4 minutes, median 4.6 minutes), respectively.

The Sheridan-Gardiner test generally shows better results than the new Räder (RT = broken wheel) test in pre-school children. Problems in making the required directional decisions may interfere with RT in this age group.