FVA for Students with Multiple Disabilities: A Collaborative Approach Across Disciplines. Webinar Questions/Answers
Question: If you are having a low vision assessment, it is useful to bring a TVI summary that may be a year+ old (the TVI did the report and documented a lot of items for a preschool transition) – L.H
Answer: The summary is useful, however keep in mind with young kiddos there could be several changes within that year- visual, motor, cognitive etc. Just for clarification when you talk about a low vision assessment are you referring to the FVA?
Question: If you are doing the assessment in the 'chair' where they are doing their best, does that give a true assessment of the child's everyday life. – L.H
Answer: No- the demands of everyday life are greater with a variety of environments encountered. The FVA observations and interviews would be critical in determining the most appropriate assessment location and tools. The “chair” is only functional if this is where the child is doing school work.
Question: When you have limited time to do an FVA, what would be the most important features you want to assess? - Kathy
Answer: This will be contingent on the Team requests, to include parent input. In determining what is most important use the interview form as a guide.
Question: Any suggestions on FVA tests for nonverbal students or young students who do not know the name of many objects/cannot say what the object is? – S.M
Question: For older students who are non-verbal? – A.B
Answer: Pre-practice with ex. Lea puzzle they don’t need to name them but, identify the pictures if possible. If they can’t work with a a formal test, the assessment would be more informal, possibly utilizing resources from APH’s ToAD kit and/or Perkins Activity and Resource Guide to determine visual functioning to share with the Team.
Question: Could you elaborate on the tests, are any of mentioned test used as end-points during the clinical trials? I meant rare diseases, such as Leber's congenital amaurosis as an example. – R.S
Answer: These are all typically standard protocols for a FVA, regardless of the eye condition the Team would be critical in determining visual functioning. The FVA is a working assessment specific to each individual and may be difficult to use in a clinical trial.
Question: Do you have copies of these visual field tests that you use? – A.B
Answer: Yes, we have copies, send me an email, when you return and I will get them to you!
Question: I want to ask about the child at the early intervention (18 months) with different observations notes at many positions . Sometimes he responded by attention and following at the different directions but other time not. – M.A
Answer: This is a tough one!! It will depend on the diagnosis, additional disabilities, environment etc. At 18 months with children with additional disabilities there may be inconsistencies in their attention all the way around. Gathering more information would definitely assist in determining their tolerance as opposed to a variety positions. If you have an idea of what works, use that as a starting point for your next observation. If there are inconsistencies, question would be what is causing the inconsistency- time of day, medication, fatigue etc.? Or if you are talking about CVI- we will try and cover that as much as possible in Part II in September.
Question: What do you if a team doesn't have concerns or if you notice/find something you think the team should have noticed and been concerned about? – J.M
Answer: This will be based on the diagnosis of the eye condition. The student may not currently have any issues visually at this time; however depending on the eye condition there could possibly be changes periodically. The Team may not be educated in the area of vision impairment, and it would be up to you as the TVI/COMS to educate the Team and administrators. This is a great question, as this is not uncommon and information gathered would be important.
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