Use Of Hand-Held Monocular Telescopes By Visually Impaired Children And Youth

H. Verbunt, A. Hendriks , N. van Moll , and G. van Tiel

De Blauwe Kamer Theofaan Groep,
St. Elisabethstraat 4,
5361 HK Grave,
The Netherlands

De Blauwe Kamer Theofaan Groep is a resource centre for the visually impaired in the south of the Netherlands. Prescription of low vision aids and instruction in the use of optical aids is part of intervention.

In order to get more insight into long term use of low vision aids in children and youth we started an evaluation of the use of hand held monocular telescopes prescribed in the period 1994-1999.

First a retrospective study was performed with regard to prescription of hand-held monocular telescopes in children visiting the school for special education in Grave and children following mainstream schools who receive guidance by an itinerant teacher in the Nijmegen region. Several aspects are taken into account when prescribing these telescopes for instance diagnosis, visual acuity, age of the child and motivation of the child or the parents.

Also instruction in the use of the low vision aid was evaluated.

Finally questionnaires were sent to the children and their parents in order to get insight into present use and various problems experienced.

The results of this evaluation will be discussed.