Overview

Viewing strategies are strategies used to process visual Information. Many children with visual impairment seem to lack systematic viewing strategies. However, it is unknown how viewing strategies differ between children with normal vision and children with (cerebral) visual impairment. In addition, viewing strategy training is often adopted in clinical practice, but till date there is no scientific evidence about effectiveness of this approach.

The current project has two goals: (1) to measure viewing strategies used by children with normal vision, children with ocular visual impairment and children with CVI, and (2) to evaluate whether training viewing strategies results in more efficiënt visual Information processing.

Eligibility

Inclusion criteria typically developing children with normal vision:

• Age 5-12 years
• linear distant visual acuity of 0.1 logMAR or better
• Verbal IQ above 70
• Absence of developmental disorders or psychiatric problems like ASS or AD(H)D

Inclusion criteria for children with ocular visual impairment:

• Age 5-12 years
• Children with linear distance visual acuity better <=1.3logMAR and >0.1 logMAR
• Intact central visual field (at least > 30 degrees)
• Children with a verbal IQ above 70
• Absence of developmental disorders or psychiatric problems like ASS or AD(H)D

Inclusion criteria for children with cerebral visual impairment:

• Age 5-12 years
• Linear distance visual acuity <=0.3 logMAR
• Having the diagnosis CVI (verified by ophthalmologists)
• Children with a verbal IQ above 70
• Absence of psychiatric problems like ASS or AD(H)D

        Additional inclusion criterion for study 2 (evaluating training effectiveness): children
        with (cerebral) visual impairment should have an indication for viewing strategy training.
        Training should not be indicated if children have no problems performing academic tasks
        (i.e. when speed and accuracy of visual processing is within the normal range). The age
        range for study 2 is 5-9 years.
        Exclusion criteria:
          -  Children with VI: linear near visual acuity >1.0 logMAR
          -  Children with visual field defect < 30 degrees
          -  Children with a verbal IQ below 70
          -  Children who attended a form of vision training in the past two years
          -  Children with psychiatric problems like ASS or AD(H)D
          -  Auditory impairment or language impairments
          -  Major life events during training