Different visual development: norms for visual acuity in children with Down's syndrome

Zahidi, Asma AA, Vinuela-Navarro, Valldeflors ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1933-5906 and Woodhouse, J Margaret ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7149-5077 2018. Different visual development: norms for visual acuity in children with Down's syndrome. Clinical and Experimental Optometry 101 (4) , pp. 535-540. 10.1111/cxo.12684

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Abstract

Background Visual acuity is known to be poorer in children with Down’s syndrome than in age‐matched controls. However, to date, clinicians do not have access to norms for children with Down’s syndrome that allow differential discrimination of healthy from anomalous visual development in this population. Methods The Down’s Syndrome Vision Research Unit at Cardiff University has been monitoring visual development in a large cohort of children since 1992. Cross‐sectional data on binocular visual acuity were retrospectively analysed for 159 children up to 12 years of age in order to establish binocular acuity norms. Longitudinal binocular acuity data were available for nine children who were seen regularly over the 12 years age‐range. Monocular acuity was successfully recorded less often in the cohort, but analysis of scores for 69 children allowed assessment of inter‐ocular acuity differences and binocular summation. Results In comparison with published norms for the various acuity tests used, binocular acuity was consistently poorer in children with Down’s syndrome from the age of three years and stabilised at around 0.25 logMAR from the age of four years. Inter‐ocular acuity difference and binocular summation were both 0.06 logMAR, which is similar to the reported values in children without Down’s syndrome. Conclusions The study provides eye‐care practitioners with the expected values for binocular acuity in children with Down’s syndrome and demonstrates the visual disadvantage that children with Down’s syndrome have when compared with their typically developing peers. The results emphasise the responsibility that practitioners have to notify parents and educators of the relatively poor vision of children with Down’s syndrome, and the need for classroom modifications.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Optometry and Vision Sciences
Publisher:	Wiley
ISSN:	0816-4622
Funders:	Mencap City Foundation, Downs Syndrome Association, Medical Research Council, National Lottery Charities Board, with Mencap, PPP Healthcare Medical Trust, National Eye Research Centre, Welsh Government and Action Medical Research
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	24 July 2018
Date of Acceptance:	27 February 2018
Last Modified:	02 Dec 2024 16:45
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/113411

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