Preliminary communication

Vision problems in children with intellectual disabilities

Sonja Alimović orcid.org/0000-0003-2122-7944 ; Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Zagreb, Croatia.

Abstract

Problems in visual functioning are one of the most common additional problems in children with intellectual disabilities. Nevertheless, they often remain undetected in children with intellectual disabilities, yet they affect development and learning. Therefore, to examine the prevalence and the kind of visual problems in children with intellectual disability we tested visual functions (visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, stereoacuity, oculomotor functions) in 25 children. All children had mild to moderate intellectual disabilities, and were between 7 and 13 years old. They all attended schools for children with intellectual disabilities. Results show that visual functions in most children were less developed than expected for their age, especially stereovision. Almost half of them had uncorrected refractive errors. We found some degree of low vision in seven children, according to results of visual acuity. The results of this study indicate that functional vision assessment should be mandatory for children with intellectual disabilities, to detect visual problems, and provide timely intervention and adaptation of materials and methods.

Keywords

vision problems; intellectual disabilities; low vision; visual functions

Hrčak ID:

193745

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/193745

Publication date:

16.2.2018.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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