title: Preteaching developmentally delayed preschoolers to aid vision screening.
abstract: Early identification and treatment of vision problems is a key element in learning. For preschool children already identified with developmental delay, vision screening and visual correction are particularly essential. Participants drawn from a public Special School District were 105 preschoolers ages 3 to 5 years identified as having developmental delay. Examples included autism, Down syndrome, physical handicap, or cognitive impairment. A partnership was created between the public preschool and the University Schools of Nursing and Optometry to implement vision screening. Teachers/teacher assistants were asked to characterize the children before and after preteaching and after vision screening. Using a semantic differential scale of bipolar descriptors, planned comparisons within a repeated measures MANOVA were statistically significant for all pairs before teaching vs. the mean of after teaching/after screening (p = 0.027) but not statistically significant for after teaching vs. after vision screening (p = 1.000). Results of this preliminary study suggest preteaching could be an important part of a successful vision screening partnership in that 102 (97%) of developmentally delayed children successfully completed screening for vision problems.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, University of Missouri-St. Louis.
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Bachman
authors.forename: W G
authors.initials: WG
authors.lastname: Bachman
authors.forename: A S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Franzel
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Marcus
mesh_terms: D002675:Child, Preschool; D002658:Developmental Disabilities / Q000150:complications*; D006801:Humans; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014786:Vision Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D015351:Vision Screening; D014787:Vision Tests / Q000379:methods