Can young visual impaired children learn to handle a magnifier?

Status

Active, not recruiting

Phases

Unknown

Study type

Interventional

Source

ISRCTN

Registry ID

ISRCTN84538122

Enrollment

Registered

2006-04-04

Start date

2006-02-01

Completion date

Unknown

Last updated

2021-04-19

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Visual impairment Eye Diseases Visual impairment

Interventions

The experimental group trains with a magnifier. The control group trains without a magnifier. The training (game) is the intervention. It is given twice a week (20 minutes) for 6 weeks

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

All

Inclusion criteria

Inclusion criteria: 1. Children, aged 2.5 to 6 years old, with visual impairment: visual acuity 0.3 or less. All children have normal development 2. Children included will have an ophthalmologic examination, an examination of their gross and fine motor skills, and an examination of their overall level of development

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion criteria: 1. Developmental delay 2. Impairment of motor skills 3. Prematurity

Design outcomes

Primary

Measure	Time frame
1. Can the training teach children to handle a magnifier? 2. Can we find a difference in performance after the training (in motor skills, symbol discrimination, visual behaviour)? Preliminary analysis (updated 15/11/2006): Preliminary analysis revealed that the 12-session training had a positive influence on children?s performance on the task. The number of correctly found end-points, attained by adequately following the corresponding path, increased for both training groups. There was however a difference in the amount of increase between the two groups. On average, the group that has trained without the magnifier performed twice as good. That is, in the post-test they found twice as much correct end-point figures as compared to the pre-test. In the group that has trained with the magnifier, this number was four times as high. Now we are studying the rich data we collected to uncover the relevant variables that determine children?s progression and the differences between the groups. In addition we are looking for a possible transfer of this progression to other domains of their development (e.g., fine-motor skills).	—

Measure

Time frame

1. Can the training teach children to handle a magnifier? 2. Can we find a difference in performance after the training (in motor skills, symbol discrimination, visual behaviour)? Preliminary analysis (updated 15/11/2006): Preliminary analysis revealed that the 12-session training had a positive influence on children?s performance on the task. The number of correctly found end-points, attained by adequately following the corresponding path, increased for both training groups. There was however a difference in the amount of increase between the two groups. On average, the group that has trained without the magnifier performed twice as good. That is, in the post-test they found twice as much correct end-point figures as compared to the pre-test. In the group that has trained with the magnifier, this number was four times as high. Now we are studying the rich data we collected to uncover the relevant variables that determine children?s progression and the differences between the groups. In addition we are looking for a possible transfer of this progression to other domains of their development (e.g., fine-motor skills).

—

Secondary

Measure	Time frame
1. How do young visual-impaired children work with a visual aid? 2. Can they perform the complex task of training and magnifier, and do they have a dominant hand and dominant eye?	—

Countries

Netherlands

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ISRCTN (via WHO ICTRP) · Data processed: Feb 4, 2026