Functional Vision Assessment

Judy Bell Independent Education Consultant Visual Impairment & Complex Needs

Some Questions
1. What is functional vision assessment (FVA)? 2. What is the difference between FVA & clinical vision assessment? 3. Who can undertake FVA? 4. Who can be usefully assessed?
Judy Bell - Independent education consultant: VI & CN 2

Processes involved in FVA

Collection of background information Observations of a childs visual behaviour in particular settings Structured intervention to manipulate the setting, circumstances or variables
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What are the variables?

The Child

The Environment

The Stimulus

Judy Bell - Independent education consultant: VI & CN

Child variables
Health Comfort Hunger Tiredness

Nature of VI ocular, cerebral or combination

Use of glasses or lenses
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Environmental variables
Time Place Competing stimuli Lighting
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Stimulus variables
Luminescence: light producing, reflecting, floresence Distance: from eyes Size & shape: diameter in cms, regularity Direction & angle: left, right, central, up, down Colour: strong, pastel, florescent Pattern: concentric, grid, stripes, representational Contrast: background, internal: high, low: colour or b&w Movement: speed, direction, starting/finishing, nature Nature: familiarity, association, object, picture, photo Sound: alerting, constant, intermittent, type
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Functional vision skills 1

Light perception Visual awareness of stimulus Contrast sensitivity Fixation/attention/visual interest/gaze Eye movements: location, saccades, tracking Visual fields & peripheral vision Colour vision Tolerance of light
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Functional vision skills 2

Directed reach Visually directed movement Joint attention Visual recognition

Speed of visual response

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Features of a good FVA report 1

1. 2. 3. 4. Name, address & d.o.b. of child Date(s) & time(s) of assessment How & from whom information gathered Description of environment(s) in which assessment(s) undertaken 5. Demeanour of child during the assessment 6. Description of a.)childs responses to
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Features of a good FVA report 2

6. Description of: a.) childs responses to b.) specific stimuli 7. Interpretation of observations 8. Recommendations 9. Name, signature & designation of assessor/report compiler 10. Date of report!
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Some FVA Frameworks

Cortical Visual Impairment: An Approach to Assessment and Intervention Author: Christine Roman-Lantzy Price: $49.95 Format: Paperback (also available in: ASCII on CDROM) ISBN: 978-0-89128-829-9 Publisher: AFB Press Year of publication: 2007 This is VERY detailed &, in its purest form, requires a lot of assessment and recording time. It is a framework for functional assessment and intervention, and is not standardized.
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Some FVA Frameworks - contd

Vision for Doing: Assessing functional vision of learners who are multiply disabled Authors: Stuart Aitken & Marianna Buultjens Moray House Publications, Edinburgh 1992 ISBN 0901580392 Downloadable from:
www.ssc.education.ed.ac.uk/resources/vi&multi/visionbook.pdf

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Assessing functional vision Children with complex needs This booklet explores the different factors that affect what a child sees, such as the size, colour and position of an object, backgrounds, lighting condition and how much time a child is given to make sense of what is presented. The assessment activities have proved useful for assessing children with a wide variety of abilities, needs and interest and are designed to enable you to establish a baseline of visual functioning. Author: Catherine Southwell Publisher: RNIB Publication Date: 2003 ED406: Clear Print (Paperback) 56 Pages ISBN: 1858785987 Price: 12.50 (Inc. VAT)

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Some FVA Frameworks - contd

Functional Vision Profile Judy Bell CDRom in process A means of creating a functional vision passport through provision of a set of descriptors which have to be personalised by the assessor. Descriptors can be deleted, expanded or new ones can be added. The descriptors act as pointers to the skills and variables that need to be considered.
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Some FVA Tools

Materials produced by Lea Hyvarinen www.lea-test.fi

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Finally - Some words of warning!

1. A FVA can only be considered as a snapshot of a childs visual functioning at a given point in time, under a given set of circumstances 2. The purpose for which a FVA is required & the needs of the child should inform the nature of the assessment. One size does not necessarily fit all! 3. Good FVA supports informs successful intervention it is not an intervention in itself.
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