Screening the vision of special school children with Down syndrome

Abstract

A vision screening was carried out of 116 children with Down syndrome who were attending schools in Brisbane or in nearby districts. Of this group, 99 children (54 boys) represented 90% of the total population of children with Down syndrome registered at special schools in Brisbane at the end of 1986. Non-cycloplegic retinoscopy was successful in assessing all the children for refractive error. About half the children in the special schools group did not show significant refractive error but 30% were long sighted, 14% short sighted, and 21% astigmatic. Children who had not previously been prescribed glasses included 4 with marked defects. It was suggested that routine optometric screening would be beneficial for children with intellectual disabilities and that the difficulties of assessment may have received too much emphasis in past reports.