Visual screening in a school for hearing‐impaired children

Abstract

Hearing-impaired children use vision to compensate for impaired auditory information. This fact, and the relatively high incidence of visual defect among the deaf population, render regular visual screening essential. The Royal School for Deaf Children, Margate, caters for children with a wide range of needs; screening involving a single-assessment structure for all pupils is felt to be inappropriate. This paper describes the implementation of a 'tiered' screening system, and the factors affecting allotment of pupils to particular 'tiers'. The screening structure is illustrated by a case study, and generalization of the system to other educational settings is discussed.

Assessment of binocular vision in kids with hearing loss

“…Eye screening is very important for the early detection of visual problems in deaf children because most of the knowledge is through a sense of sight and hearing, though some knowledge is obtained through tactile, olfactory, and kinesthetic senses. Hence early detection and diagnosis are the crucial aspects for social and professional adjustment of hearing-impaired patients [4,5] . The study suggests that the possibility of ophthalmological abnormalities in hearing children ranges from 17% to 30% whereas in deaf children it ranges from 44% to 65% [4,[6][7][8][9] .…”