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Abstracts 643
Hong Kong; b Developmental Disabilities Unit and c Department
of Ophthalmology, Caritas Medical Centre, Hong
Kong, China
Introduction: Refractive errors is one of the major ocular
defects in children with severe mental retardation. While
their visual acuity may improve significantly after prescription
of corrective lenses, it is not clear whether this is associated
with prompt functional and behavioral improvement.
The latter may be assessed by the visual function checklist
(VFC), which is an innovative behavioral tool to assess the
child’s response to light perception, abilities of visual
exploration, fixation, following, distance viewing, grabbing,
orientation, and the presence of optokinetic nystagmus.
Methods: The subjects included ten children with severe
grade mental retardation and significant refractive errors.
They were randomly allocated to wear corrective and
plano lenses. They were then assessed by a developmental
paediatrician with the VFC. Subsequently, children from the
plano lens group crossed over to wear corrective lenses,
while those originally in the corrective lens group changed
onto plano lenses. The assessor, who was blinded to the
treatment allocation, would perform a second evaluation
with the VFC. The assessment was conducted in standardized
settings. The results were converted into a VQ, with a
range from 0 to 1. The mean VQ from both groups were
compared by paired samples t-test. As it was assumed the
visual function might improve or remain the same after
corrective lenses, the significance level was set at a one
tailed probability of ,0.05. Results: The mean VQ for the
corrective lens group and plano lens group were
0.829 ^ 0.304 and 0.789 ^ 0.313, respectively. There was
significant prompt improvement in the visual function of the
subjects after improvement in visual acuity (one tailed
P ¼ 0:045). Discussion: The correction of ocular defects
in children with severe mental retardation may be associated
with functional improvement. The VFC is complementary
to conventional acuity tests in monitoring the functional
improvement.
FP-T-22
Analysis and evaluation of visual-motor integrated
coordinating motion in children -a preliminary result
C. Chen a , S.-C. Chen a , C.-H. Yu a , J.-H. Yeh a , J.-H. Lai a , C.-
L. Chen b
a Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation,
Taipei Medical University Hospital, Taipei, Chinese Taipei;
b Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation,
Chang Gung Memorial and Children Hospital, Taoyuan,
Chinese Taipei
The pathophysiology of clumsy hand function in children
is strongly related with the development of visual-motor
integration. In 1967, Berry developed the Beery-Buktenica
developmental test of visual-motor integration (VMI) as an
assessment tool to evaluate the integration ability of visual
perception and motor coordination. Our study is designed to
analyze the motion of selected functional task during daily
life, e.g. spoon manipulation, which demands desirable eyehand
coordination for the children based on VMI test
results. Meanwhile, the comparison with normal children
will be carried out. We collected three children from 3 to
6 years old. They are examined with VMI test following two
additional tests (visual perception and motor coordination).
Furthermore, they are instructed to perform a selected functional
task in activity of daily living (ADL) by using a spoon
to transport objects in four directions (horizontal, vertical,
right downward oblique and left downward oblique). We
recorded the kinematic values including movement velocity,
trajectory and the displacement corresponding to the
straight line between target and initial positions. We found
the child with poor visual-motor integration made more
errors and the one who had pure motor coordination
performed the task with more slow velocity compared
with the normal child. However their movement trajectory
made no significant differences. This preliminary result
offered the clinical physician and therapists a guideline for
further training program in children with problems of visual
motor integration or motor coordination. Further recruitment
of subjects for more convinced conclusion was
required.
FP-T-023
How are fathers first informed about the disabilities of
their children and how do they accept the facts?
K. Miura a , M. Aoyama b , M. Shibata b , M. Yamamoto b ,O.
Nitta c , M. Miyao d , Y. Iwasaki e
a School of Occupational Therapy,
b School of Nursing,
c School of Physical Therapy Tokyo Metropolitan University
of Health Sciences;
d Division of Develop. Psychology
National Children’s Medical Care Center,
e Division of
Child Neurology, Tokyo Metropolitan Yotsugi Rehabilitation
Center, Japan
Purpose: This research was to investigate how fathers are
first informed about the disabilities of their children, and
how accept the facts. Subjects: Fifty-four fathers ranging
from 31 to 65 years (mean age: 45.6 years) whose children
have physical disabilities (CP, PMD, etc.) and are from 6 to
18 years old (mean age: 12.6 years) at a special school.
Method: Fathers answered a questionnaire developed from
a research project team at Tokyo Metropolitan University of
Health Sciences. Results: Most of the fathers were informed
of the disabilities of their children before the children were 1
year old, and the fathers were in the company of their wives
and doctors. Most of them responded like this: ‘I have no
actual feelings’, ‘it is a great shock’ and ‘I am greatly disappointed’.
One father felt that the ‘doctor did not think about
the parents well-being’. The period of acceptance ranged
from 10 months–11 years (mean period: 15 months). Half