Grating acuity tests for infants, young children and individuals with disabilities: A review of recent advances

ABSTRACT

Background

Accurate measurement of visual acuity is important in managing any ocular condition. Measuring visual acuity has always remained a challenge in infants, young children and individuals with disabilities who are unable to respond verbally. A variety of pediatric acuity tests that include both grating and recognition acuities have been described in the literature, some of which are outdated. This review paper aims to summarize the currently available and recently developed grating acuity tests that can be used for infants, young children and individuals with disabilities.

Methods

A review of literature was carried out to identify tests that were currently available and recently developed. Additionally, search was also done on popular search engines and websites of companies. Tests identified were screened for availability and investigated for validity through published research in peer-reviewed journals.

Results

A total of eight grating acuity tests were identified, out of which six of them were paper-based tests. The remaining two tests were app-based tests with established data for the typically developing pediatric cohort. The repeatability indices were available only for four grating acuity tests.

Conclusions

This review paper summarizes the basic features of the grating acuity tests and importantly, the parameters that determine the clinical utility of the tests such as the testability, acuity range, specific cohort studied, testing time and reliability indices. The paper also discusses the recent technological advancements in the field of acuity testing for the pediatric cohort and its comparisons with the conventional methods when available.

KEYWORDS:

• Grating acuity
• Infant vision
• Pediatric visual acuity
• Vision in individuals with developmental delays and disabilities
• Vision in pre- or non-verbal children

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the valuable inputs provided by Dr. Ahalya Subramanian and Dr. Miriam Conway from City, University of London, London, United Kingdom towards this review paper.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ Octave is doubling or halving of spatial frequency.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by the Hyderabad Eye Research Foundation.