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Visual habilitation in young children with visual impairment
Esra Sahli1, Pinar Bingol Kiziltunc1, Aysun Idil1
1School of Medicine, Department of Ophthalmology, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey.
Insights
Visual habilitation programs significantly improve visual functions in young children with visual impairments. Early intervention and consistent visual stimulation at home are key to successful outcomes for visually impaired children.
Area of Science:
- Ophthalmology
- Pediatrics
- Developmental Neuroscience
Background:
- Visual impairment in children under three years old presents significant developmental challenges.
- Early intervention is crucial for maximizing visual potential and functional outcomes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the efficacy of a visual habilitation program for improving visual functions in visually impaired children under three years of age.
- To identify factors influencing visual function improvement in this population.
Main Methods:
- Retrospective review of case records for children with visual impairment (VI) and at least one follow-up visit.
- Visual function scoring (0-15) based on fixation and following skills.
- Comparison of visual function scores at presentation versus last follow-up.
Main Results:
- One hundred thirty children with VI were analyzed (mean age 13.9 months, mean follow-up 12.8 months).
- Vision improvement was observed across ocular, cerebral, and combined VI groups, with no significant inter-group differences.
- Children attending rehabilitation centers and receiving home-based visual stimulation showed significantly greater improvement in visual function scores (p < 0.001).
Conclusions:
- Visual habilitation programs, incorporating visual stimulation, are effective in enhancing visual functions of visually impaired children.
- Consistent participation in specialized programs and home-based visual stimulation significantly impacts functional vision gains.
- Early and targeted interventions can lead to measurable improvements in visual abilities for young children with VI.
Purpose:
To evaluate the effectiveness of the visual habilitation programme in improving the visual functions of visually impaired children under 3 years old.
Methods:
Case records of children with visual impairment (VI) who had at least 1 follow-up visit were reviewed. Children's visual functions were scored between 0 and 15 based on mainly fixation and following skills. Differences in patients' visual function score (VFS) between the time of the presentation and the last follow-up visit were recorded.
Results:
One hundred thirty children with VI (63 male and 67 female) were identified. The mean age at the presentation was 13.94 ± 9.23 months, and the mean follow-up was 12.79 ± 9.4 months. Forty of the patients had ocular, 70 of them had cerebral, and 20 of them had combined VI. Correlations were found between the age of the patients at the presentation and the initial VFS; and gestational age and the initial VFS (p ˂ 0.001, r = 0.332; p ˂ 0.05, r = 0.262, respectively). Vision improvement was noted in ocular, cerebral and combined VI groups. No significant difference among the groups was found (p = 0.430). There was a significant difference between the change in the VFSs of those who attended the special education and rehabilitation centre regularly for 2 h a week and had regular visual stimulation for 8-10 sessions every day at home and those who did not go to the centre and did not receive any visual stimulation by their parents at home (p ˂ 0.001).
Conclusions:
The visual functions of visually impaired children can be improved by habilitation, which includes visual stimulation programmes.
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