Optometric care of children with significant learning disabilities.

Children with significant learning disability have a much higher incidence of visual problems than their peers who are developing typically. Around half of children attending special school have a significant ocular and/or visual problem, yet only around 10% report ever accessing community optical practice and 43% (average age 10.7 years) have no reported history of any eye care. There is a much greater risk of significant refractive error, strabismus and eye movement disorders, cerebral visual impairment, disc anomalies and visual field defects in children with a learning disability. The authors aim to familiarise the reader with the prevalence and causes of learning disability and provide an outline of the more common ocular and non-ocular associations of learning disability and, where data are available, their prevalence. Suggestions for how optometrists can successfully meet the eye care needs of this vulnerable group in the community and special schools setting will be discussed. A best-practice model of special school eye care provision developed by SeeAbility in conjunction with the eye care professional bodies will be outlined. This model is set out in the Framework for Provision of Eye Care in Special Schools in England and is now recommended by Public Health England and NHS England, who have committed to establishing it in all English special schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]