As the result of inservice training and public information efforts in the Fremont (California) Unified School District, 138 children were referred to the district's program for visually impaired students over a 3 1/2 year period. (Author)

Twenty-five older adults with age-related macular degeneration were separated into one of three groups: in-clinic training, take-home-training, or no-training. After testing, results showed that the ability to distinguish figure from ground is an improvable skill with the take-home group improving the most. (Author/DB)

The study assessed variations in the indoor and outdoor locomotor mobility of 22 low-vision adults, under normal and reduced illumination. Subjects' visual fields and contrast sensitivities accounted for 39 percent of the variation in mobility performance, whereas their visual acuities were not related to mobility performance. (Author/JDD)

This article reports on a study of the spatial mapping skills of two totally blind, two visually impaired, and eight normally sighted children. Children were asked to point to familiar locations in and around their homes. Results suggest that blindness interferes with the development of spatial knowledge in which Euclidean directions between…

Statistical analyses of scores on subtests of the Intelligence Test for Visually Impaired Children were done for two groups of children, either with or without usable vision. Results suggest that the battery has differential factorial and predictive validity. (Author/DB)

This study examined the contribution of the home environment to the reading achievement of 49 children and adolescents with low vision. It found that children with no books at home read less well than those with books at home, but that no other home variables were related to reading achievement. (DB)

Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) causes restriction of the visual field, progressive vision loss, and night blindness. This article presents an overview of the most common problems in orientation and mobility (O&M) for individuals with RP, appropriate interventions, vision science discoveries related to RP, and the impact of RP on functional visual…

Capabilities and limitations of 251 severely visually impaired persons (senior high school age or older) were assessed on a range of visual environmental adaptation problems to learn how they are organized and influenced. Factor analyses indicated that problems can be grouped on the basis of eight functional domains, among which an independent…

Among results comparing attainment of the conservation concept in blind (N=30), partially sighted (N=50), and sighted (N=40) children (ages 6-15) in Taiwan were that development of partially sighted children was more like the development of sighted than blind children, and that a 1-4 year developmental lag occurred in blind children. (Author/DB)

Elementary partially sighted students read significantly more total books and school books using the Visolett (a low vision aid) than using large print text books, and the junior high partially sighted students read significantly more total pages using the Visolett. (Author/CL)

A comparative study of conservation development in partially sighted, sighted, and sighted blindfolded children at four age levels was assessed. Conservation on tasks of mass, weight, and volume were evaluated using Piaget and Inhelder's prediction, judgment, and explanation questions. The significant differences were found between groups, task,…

In the study, eight random samples of respondents (236 adult Ss) from a small Western city were presented with questionnaires which requested that they evaluate the characteristics of a stimulus person who varied by sightedness (blind, totally sightless, partially sighted, sighted), and age (35 or 65 years). (Author/SBH)

Analysis of language samples from four children with blindness, four children with low vision, and four sighted children (ages 4-5) revealed that the sighted group had greater complexity of utterances, lower frequency of inappropriate pronoun use, more variation in sentence types, and more instances of experiential narrative and imaginative play.…

This study evaluated the Columbus (Ohio) Children's Hospital vision stimulation program, involving in-home intervention with 15 visually impaired infants. Comparison with controls indicated benefits of appropriate vision stimulation in increasing the neural foundation for vision and visual-motor function in visually impaired infants. (Author/DB)

This open-ended survey of 156 subjects (78 pairs of visually handicapped orientation and mobility specialists and adult clients) identified common low vision mobility problems (lighting conditions, drop-offs, street crossings, changes in terrain) and found a high degree of agreement between the reported perceptions of mobility practitioners and…