Visual-auditory intervention for children with cerebral vision impairment (CVI).

PURPOSE: This is a proof of concept study that aims to evaluate a visual-auditory intervention program on fixation in children with cerebral visual impairment (CVI). Secondary aims include evaluating the effectiveness of the intervention on other visual functions and processing and exploring potential relationships between treatment parameters. METHODS: This study is a retrospective observational review of children with CVI who underwent tailored, fortnightly visual-auditory interventions for 12 months. Participants had a comprehensive orthoptic vision assessment before intervention and at 12-months. Personalized fortnightly visual-auditory training and homework aimed at improving visual and visual processing functions were implemented. Visual function outcomes included fixation duration, fixation behavior and re- fixation patterns, distance grating acuity, near object detection, and contrast sensitivity. Observed visual processing outcomes included visual attention, visual crowding, and visual response latency. The median number of training sessions received was 17.41 (IQR = 15.25,18). RESULTS: This study included 22 children with CVI (median age 29.15mo, range 7.37mo-17.17 yrs, 9 males, 13 females). There were statistically signifi cant diff erences between all pre- and post-training parameters. Improvements were noted in all assessment variables, specifi cally fixation duration (Z = -4.05, p =<.001, r = -.61), fixation behavior (Z = -3.92, p =<.001, r = -.59), grating acuity (Z = -3.48, p = <.001, r = -.52), near object detection (Z = -2.97, p = .003, r = -.45), contrast sensitivity (Z = -3.47, p=<.001, r = -.52), visual attention (Z = -3.74, p =<.001, r = -.56), visual crowding (Z = -4.14, p =<.001, r = -.62) and visual response latency (Z = -3.83, p =<.001, r = -.58). There were moderate to strong and signi cant correlations between xation duration and xation behavior, distance vision, near object detection, visual crowding, and visual response latency. CONCLUSION: This proof of concept study indicates that visual-auditory intervention is a promising rehabilitation technique to improve visual function and visual processing ability. Future research should focus on further developing an evidence base for this intervention.