Cerebral Visual Impairment and Clinical Assessment: The European Perspective

Questionnaires as screening tools for children with cerebral visual impairment

“…It could be very effectively integrated in a multidisciplinary assessment, where ophthalmology and neurodisability teams work together with parents and teachers. The Flemish CVI questionnaire could be the starting point to build an individually tailored program of interventions that can support and meet the children’s needs, and help them to reach their optimal potential through a family‐centered approach …”

Reducing the burden of childhood cerebral visual impairment: another step forward

“…Most standardized tests of visuoperceptual abilities require the testee to have the cognitive abilities of a 4‐ to 5‐year‐old or older, thereby denying affected children with younger developmental ages the option of early, targeted support. There is growing concern about unmet need, failure to achieve potential, and avoidable mental health problems such as anxiety and poor self‐esteem, for the increasing number of children with CVI whose difficulties go unrecognised …”

“…Another benefit of the work from this group is that they have made it available online, which will both widen and standardize its use. This speaks to the now pressing need to reach further consensus on the best ways to assess and grade CVI in children . As the numbers, training, and skillsets of different professionals vary between and within countries, agreeing a core set of functions or domains to be tested and compared with validated norms, which local groups can work with according to their available resources, would be a good way forward.…”

“…There is growing concern about unmet need, failure to achieve potential, and avoidable mental health problems such as anxiety and poor self-esteem, for the increasing number of children with CVI whose difficulties go unrecognised. 3 The two papers by Vancleef et al in this issue 4,5 are, therefore, very welcome as they describe a new validated tool to help identify visuoperceptual impairments in children aged 3 to 6 years. The Children's Visual Impairment Test for 3-to 6-year-olds (CVIT 3-6) combines a clinically applicable protocol with scientifically robust principles grounded in the neuropsychological literature and takes up to 30 minutes to administer, but can be done in stages.…”

“…This speaks to the now pressing need to reach further consensus on the best ways to assess and grade CVI in children. 3 As the numbers, training, and skillsets of different professionals vary between and within countries, agreeing a core set of functions or domains to be tested and compared with validated norms, which local groups can work with according to their available resources, would be a good way forward. In addition, it is essential to understand how effective and cost-effective interventions are for CVI, in order to attract the funding needed.…”