[blindkid] Functional Vision Assessment in preschooler -- what should be included -- can anyone PLEASE help?

Sat Jan 8 15:05:36 UTC 2011

Hi Amy,

There are several FVA instruments on the 
market.  The newest that I am aware of (and there 
might be newer ones) was published by the 
American Printinghouse in 2008.  It seems to be 
thorough, but the language in it is exceedingly negative, in my view.

In my experience, I have seen that many (most, 
maybe) TVIs use bits and pieces of assessments 
they know or like.  Many complain that the full 
assessments are too long.  Some states create 
their own (I believe NJ did at one time).  I'm 
afraid that the thoroughness of FVA reports varies widely.

I have always wished that the Functional Vision 
Assessment would be changed to a Functional 
SKILLS Assessment, both to change the 
"vision-only" mentality--harmful to the kids, I 
think--and to get to the real issues--does this 
child have the skills and tools that will enable 
him/her to accomplish all of the tasks at 
hand.  That means will he/she be able to 
participate fully and independently in all 
classroom activities throughout the school 
day.  That means FULLY--without cutting down 
assignments and without resorting to audio 
learning at a young age!  For partially sighted 
children, this often means the need to include 
the "nonvisual" skills such as braille, JAWS for 
the computer, cane travel, and a certain sort of 
VERY NECESSARY self-advocacy training.

Eva Scott, a teacher at The College of New 
Jersey, was working on a Functional Skills 
Assessment.  I'll contact her and see if it could be shared and used by others.

Another aspect to consider is what reading 
medium/a should the child use.  At some point 
your child will probably be assessed for that, 
too.  The assessments currently on the market for 
that purpose also have deep problems!  We'll save that for another post!

Carol

Carol Castellano
National Organization of Parents of Blind Children
973-377-0976
carol_castellano at verizon.net
www.nopbc.org

At 08:13 AM 1/8/2011, you wrote:
>Hi, Can anyone share what instruments are 
>typically used in a functional vision assessment 
>at the preschool level for a child with low 
>vision, and what information is typically 
>included in the report? Our 3 year old 
>(oculocutanous albinism and a left field 
>delay/deficit, nystagmus, photophobia) just 
>started preschool this fall, and in November had 
>a functional vision assessment done by the TVI. 
>We just received the written report. It is very 
>general and appears to be mostly a form letter 
>with a few paragraphs of individualized 
>information. While it lists the LEA symbols and 
>Pavi book it doesn't state how the instruments 
>were used to assess her functional vision or 
>what the specific results were. Our daughter's 
>report doesn't say how our daughter was assessed 
>or what the specific results were. For example, 
>"my assessment yielded similar results" was used 
>a couple of times following a sentence about 
>what the opthalmologist or low vision doctor 
>said in a previous report. The teacher was not 
>aware when the TVI came in to do the assessment 
>unfortunately (she may have been out that day), 
>so we just don't have much info about what was 
>done. I guess my questions are:     • Is it 
>unreasonable to have the functional vission 
>assessment include how the instruments were used 
>and the specific results? (Such as she was able 
>to recognize LEA symbols at 2 feet but not at 5 
>feet, etc.)     •¢ Are there any best practices 
>out there for what should be included in a FVA 
>at this level, for a low vision preschooler? 
>Shouldn't it include some kind of objective 
>testing for near, far, and mid-range vision, 
>field of vision, and also cite observations 
>about her in different lighting conditions ? And 
>maybe do specific tests to address her field 
>deficit in classroom?     • Shouldn't the FFVA 
>state how the child is functioning *in her 
>specific classroom setting* -- I thought we were 
>going to have more information and specific 
>observations from the TVI about what she sees 
>our child doing/not doing.     • How ooften 
>should these be done? Our daughter had a FVA 3-4 
>months prior from earlier TVI, so I really 
>thought having a new FVA was to address 
>specifically her academic needs in a preschool 
>environment.     • We are familiar witth the LEA 
>symbols but can anyone share what the Pavi book 
>is? I did a quick search online and all I came 
>up with was the Parents and Visually Impaired 
>Infants materials written by D. Chen in 1989. 
>The short description given seems to describe 
>materials for parents as home based intervention 
>on infants and toddlers.     • Are there 
>any  best practices out there for what should be 
>included in a functional vision assessment at 
>this level, for a low vision preschooler? On the 
>plus side the suggested modifications at the end 
>are helpful (most are already in our IEP, 
>although there is a good recommendation added 
>for a tray table). I just don't think the report 
>is enough for a FVA, and we were hoping to have 
>this info to use in revising our daughter's IEP. 
>Thank you so much to anyone who is able to 
>either share what was done in their FVA or 
>(fingers crossed) there might be TVIs out there 
>who can enlighten us on what to expect from a 
>FVA. Amy 
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