Neuropsychological presentation and adaptive skills in high-functioning adolescents with visual impairment: A preliminary investigation.

Studies in infants and young children with congenital visual impairment (VI) have indicated early developmental vulnerabilities, conversely research with older children and adults have highlighted areas of cognitive strength. A minimal amount is known, however, about the possible combination of strengths and weaknesses in adolescence, and this present study therefore aims to explore the neuropsychological presentation and adaptive behavior profile in high-functioning adolescents with congenital VI. Participants completed a battery of commonly used neuropsychological measures assessing memory, executive function, and attention. The measures utilized focused on auditory neuropsychological function, because only subtests that could be completed with auditory administration were suitable for this sample. Parents completed standardized measures of adaptive behavior, executive function, and social communication. Compared to aged-based norms for normal sight, adolescents with VI demonstrated strengths in aspects of working memory and verbal memory. Furthermore, performance across the neuropsychological battery was within or above the average range for the majority of the sample. In contrast, parent-report measures indicated areas of weakness in adaptive functioning, social communication, and behavioral executive functioning. Overall, this study provides preliminary evidence that relative to fully sighted peers, high-functioning adolescents with VI present with an uneven profile of cognitive and adaptive skills, which has important implications for assessment and intervention.

Social communicative variation in 1-3-year-olds with severe visual impairment.

BACKGROUND: Although the social communicative domain is recognized as being at risk in young children with visual impairment (VI), few tools are available for identifying those most at risk or the aspects that are most vulnerable. METHODS: A standard parent interview - Social Communication Interview for young children with visual impairment (SOCI-VI), was developed and tested with 55 parents of 17 profoundly, 15 severely VI and 23 normally sighted children; mean age 22 months (range 10-40 months). The 35-item SOCI-VI 35 showed adequate inter-rater and test-retest reliability (P < 0.001). RESULTS: Thirteen of 35 items discriminated within and between the vision groups (anova P 0.008). The group with profound VI scored significantly lower than the Sighted group on the reduced 13 item SOCI-VI 13 (t-test P 0.002), the disparity being greatest for items exploring joint attention. The reduced SOCI-VI 13 showed adequate internal consistency (Cronbach alpha > 0.75) and concurrent validity with the Vineland adaptation questionnaire within a randomized VI subgroup (r 0.8, P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The study reveals trends in early social communicative development in the young VI population and provides preliminary reliability and validity testing for future research within a clinical context.

Parental involvement in the KIDS Family Centre: who does it work for?

Although parental involvement has been a major development in the field of disability and handicap, there has been relatively little systematic investigation of the value and appreciation of parental involvement from the parent's point of view. This study addresses the use and appraisal of services by parents at the KIDS Family Centre, Camden, London, which offers a variety of family-focused services with differing degrees of parental involvement. The evidence showed that the overall appraisal of the Centre was high but, given the choice, individual parents selected and appreciated different kinds of parental involvement services. Certain family background variables were associated with the pattern of selection and rating.