The kit is intended for children with visual impairments aged 0.5 years to 3.5 years.
The purpose of the assessment is to perform an examination of the child’s functional vision with reference to the main visual skills: awareness of visual stimuli, gaze focus, follow-up, scanning, decoding.
For more information, lectures and tutorials you can contactYael Rauch is prolific , Elia ‘s Director of Training and Development
The information obtained from this assessment will enable the development of a personal learning program in the field of vision, adapted to the child.
- <€ How to evaluate:
- When will we conduct the assessment with the child during the day?
Evaluation times depend on the child. It should be done at times that are good for him, usually in the morning. It is advisable to observe the child at good times and in less good times.
In the case of abnormal sleep disorders in children, thinking should be done regarding the times of performing vision assessments.
- Where will we perform the vision assessment?
In and out of the dark room, in the garden environment and in familiar and unfamiliar surroundings.
- What objects will we use to perform the vision assessment?
In familiar and unfamiliar objects. It is important to have a variety of tools and objects to perform an assessment, so that they do not mimic the use of objects that are accustomed to and exist in the garden on a daily basis. It is necessary to test the ability and not the habit, i.e .: that no specific study of a game is done but that there is a generalization of the ability. For example: a lottery game with pictures from the green binder on a light table – try other lottery games with the child using other pictures to check that there is no imitation but that the ability has been learned and there is generalization in the execution of aids that are similar to what he learned.
- Will we perform the vision assessment with or without a bandage?
We will perform with and without the patch unless the patch interferes with the child’s functioning at such a level that the assessment cannot be performed with it. It is not advisable to get into power struggles with the child.
- The importance of the child’s facilitators when performing the vision assessment:
It is important to take care when evaluating the optimal position for the child both physically and visually. The child should be allowed the stability and position of the comfortable and correct angle of vision for him. It’s important to note this in the evaluation!
- Will the assessment be done with another staff member?
It is not necessary to carry out the assessment accompanied by another staff member. Consider performing with another staff member if another staff member has a better acquaintance with the child in terms of visual function. Carrying out an assessment together allows for shared learning, inquiries to make an assessment rather than documentation, looking at another person and deliberating and drawing conclusions during confusing and inconsistent situations in the child’s visual function.
- Collection of developmental information
It is important to look at developmental norms tables in the field of vision and other areas of development, in order to understand what normative functioning is and the comparison between it and dysfunction..
- Meaning of the following sections in the evaluation:
- The differences between awareness of light perception and awareness of the direction of light
Space and directionality indicate a higher cognitive level of visual use. It is a visual, perceptually mature and useful visual system. Direction teaches that the child knows where he is and that he knows that there is space – this is a functional aspect (how does my vision lead me in the world?).
- Close-up depth vision – the need to fix / hold the rod, container or tool by someone other than the child
In order to check (when using depth vision or 3D vision) whether the operation is performed using vision or with the hands only, the rod should be fixed or the container held by someone other than the child.
To check that the ability exists you can choose a relatively large tool and not the smallest, i.e .: an easy assessment to perform, and in order to check the quality of the existing ability , you can make it difficult to increase the level of performance.
- Identification of visual signs (characteristic of the object such as color, shape, familiarity …) in which the child is used to decipher an image / object / figure
Many objects have very important main lines or identification points, which are important to teach our children, in order to improve the brain’s ability to decipher what the eyes transmit.
- Spontaneous versus intentional scanning
Spontaneous scanning – Has the child used sight as a tool to “perceive” the world (the information received through the senses is encoded in memory and undergoes cognitive processing, in order to give meaning to the environment) and not as a tool to perceive. For example: I consciously look for the dog or I have seen him and then I am awake to him. Spontaneous scanning is functional and an active tool for learning.
Intentional scanning – an action in which we give guidance to the child.
- Complete Missing Image (Visual Imagination Development)
Completion of missing information is one of the learning assessments. We are actually testing the child’s visual imagination.
It is a learned vision skill, a method of work.
- The ability to draw an imaginary line between two points
The child’s ability to create in his imagination a world consisting of two points and the understanding that there is a connection between them is tested. This is a spatial examination of the worldview. Use vision to build a richer and higher spatial world in the brain.
Our rich experience in space creates the shape in the imagination, for example: creating 4 points in space that creates the shape square.
- The visual supervision in eye – hand contact
is the added and important value, adds to the quality of motor action and the quality (and improvement) of visual acuity. - Combine multiple skills at once
The integration of systems is important and necessary since there is no functioning without a combination of the senses. There are almost no tasks in daily life that require a single sense.
