Children With Cortical Visual Impairment and Complex Communication Needs: Identifying Gaps Between Needs and Current Practice

Abstract

Purpose This scoping study sought to establish a baseline for how well the needs of children with cortical visual impairment (CVI) who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) are currently aligned with the services available to them. CVI is the most common cause of visual impairment in children today, and AAC methods rely heavily on vision. Yet, the prevalence of CVI in children who use AAC methods is not yet known, and there is virtually no research concerning use of AAC with children with CVI. Our overarching goals were to identify barriers and suggest priorities for improving outcomes for these children. Method Surveys were distributed anonymously online to professionals from multiple disciplines in different school-based settings and to parents of children with CVI who use AAC. Results School-based professionals identified many barriers, including a lack of knowledge and skills about CVI and about AAC, limited access to training and experts, and concerns about services being delivered in isolated silos with limited time allotted for interprofessional collaboration and planning. Parent reported that their children ( M age = 11 years) continued to rely predominantly on body-based forms of communication and lacked access to symbolic language, which, in AAC, is primarily visually based. Conclusions The barriers to services identified by school-based professionals indicate a need to develop and disseminate reliable information about CVI and AAC, both at a preservice and in-service level and, while doing so, to respect the diversity of stakeholders who need this information, including parents. Future research on what types of AAC approaches support the development of language and communication skills for children with CVI is essential.

Post-pandemic innovation: a six-session visual telerehabilitation program for children

“…To personalize visual telerehabilitation, an ad-hoc questionnaire should be administered to the parents of the VI child in order to gather ecological information about his/her visual abilities. In line with research analyzing parents of visually impaired children's feedback on orthoptic rehabilitation services (Jackel et al, 2019;Blackstone et al, 2021), these data may ameliorate the protocol by valuing parents as mediators of the orthoptists' alliance with VI children, also given that parents have to dispose and manage the telerehabilitation setting. An eight-item ad-hoc questionnaire is proposed (see Table 1) with practical examples of children's visual capacities in the family's daily life.…”

Proceedings INNODOCT/22. International Conference on Innovation, Documentation and Education

“…To personalize visual telerehabilitation, an ad-hoc questionnaire should be administered to the parents of the VI child in order to gather ecological information about his/her visual abilities. In line with research analyzing parents of visually impaired children's feedback on orthoptic rehabilitation services (Jackel et al, 2019;Blackstone et al, 2021), these data may ameliorate the protocol by valuing parents as mediators of the orthoptists' alliance with VI children, also given that parents have to dispose and manage the telerehabilitation setting. An eight-item ad-hoc questionnaire is proposed (see a Universidad Autónoma de Bucaramanga, docente del programa en Ingeniería Industrial, ltalero@unab.edu.co.…”

Creating a Path for Systematic Investigation of Children With Cortical Visual Impairment Who Use Augmentative and Alternative Communication

“…In a recent scoping survey, professionals and parents responded to questions about the gaps they confront between the needs of children with CVI who use AAC in schoolbased settings and the services currently available to these children (Blackstone et al, 2021). Professionals who responded (N = 263) self-identified as speech-language pathologists (SLPs), teachers of the visually impaired, special educators, occupational therapists, assistive technologists, and orientation and mobility specialists.…”