Photorefractive studies of normal and handicapped infants and children

We have photorefracted 360 infants and children of ages 2 months to 5 years from and around Tompkins County, New York, who were free of any obvious ocular pathology. From these studies we have established 95% confidence limits for largest cylinder, largest sphere, and spherical and cylindrical differences between eyes as a function of age. Using this normal data we have begun to photorefract handicapped children from special childrens' centers in and around Tompkins County. Our preliminary data indicate a higher prevalance (greater than 4 X ) of refractive anomalies in handicapped children, as compared to normal children, even when allowance for ocular pathology is made.