A test battery of child development for examining functional vision (ABCDEFV)

Abstract

A battery of 22 tests is described, intended to give an integrated assessment of children's functional visual capacities between birth and four years of age. As well as sensory visual measures such as acuity, visual fields and stereopsis, the battery is intended to tap a range of perceptual, motor, spatial and cognitive aspects of visual function. Tests have been drawn from practice in ophthalmology and orthoptics, vision research, paediatric neurology, and developmental psychology to give an overall view of children's visual competences for guidance in diagnosis, further investigation, management and rehabilitation of children with developmental disorders. ‘Core vision tests’ require no motoric capacities beyond saccadic eye movements or linguistic skills and so assess basic visual capacities in children of any age. ‘Additional tests’ have age-specific requirements and are designed to pinpoint specific deficits in the perceptual, visuo-motor and spatio-cognitive domains. Normative data are reported on nine age groups between 0–6 weeks and 31–36 months, each including 32–43 typically developing children. Pass/fail criteria for each test are defined. These data allow the selection of a subset of tests for each age group which are passed by at least 85% of normally developing children, and so are appropriate for defining normal development. The normalized battery has been applied to a range of at-risk and clinical groups. Aspects of children's visual performance are discussed in relation to neurobiological models of visual development.