Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness

This article describes new developmental age levels and some psychometric properties for the Reynell-Zinkin scales for young children with visual impairments. Besides the standard error of measurement, psychometric properties are available on item variation, scale reproducibility, and internal consistency. The usefulness of age levels of the Reynell-Zinkin scales is discussed in relation to the aim of the scales, which is to have guidelines for assessment and developmental advice.

The psychosocial well-being of 115 adolescents with visual impairments was compared with that of 44 adolescents with chronic conditions and 607 adolescents with no disabilities. It was found that the adolescents with visual impairments, especially those who were blind, had more difficulties in their relationships with friends than did the other two groups, but had fewer problems with psychological well-being than did the adolescents with chronic conditions.

This study of the interaction between some background variables and visual deficits in the reading training of elderly participants with low vision found that differences between the participants in a three-year period did not seem to be related primarily to changes in visual ability. Rather, other factors, especially aging and all its consequences, were more influential in maintaining reading ability.

A videotape of a speaker saying a set of test words and phrases was presented in background noise to 10 sighted older adults and 10 older adults with severe low vision (age-related maculopathy), all of whom had normal hearing. It was found that the word- and phrase-identification scores of the low vision group were significantly lower than those of the sighted group at all levels of background noise. Strategies are suggested for optimizing face-to-face communication in background noise for people with visual impairments.