Preferential Looking in the mentally handicapped

Abstract

SummaryWe have assessed the feasibility of Preferential Looking (PL), using Teller Acuity Cards, for the estimation of binocular and monocular visual acuities in a group of mentally handicapped adults. Our results show the comparison between grating and recognition acuities, inter-observer variation, success rate, time taken and the sensi tivity of this method in identifying monocular visual deficit in this group of subjects. The reasons for success or failure with PL methods in relation to criteria for mental handicap are discussed.

Cerebral Visual Impairment in Children

“…they favour such stimuli above others and, therefore, fi xate upon them longer (see Sect. The method of PL has been proven reliable for the assessment of visual acuity in children with CVI (Chandna et al 1989 ;Birch and Bane 1991 ;Schmidt 1994 ). This preference behaviour underlies many assessment methods in visual development, for example, for visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, discrimination of colour hues and of forms, fi gures and complex visual stimuli and size and number of stimuli (Miranda 1970 ;Fantz and Fagan 1975 ;Clavadetscher et al 1988 ).…”