Evidence of cognitive visual problems in children with hydrocephalus: a structured clinical history-taking strategy

Damage to the occipital cortex in children can result in many complex disor ders of cognitive visual function. a series of clinical questions, develope d from the specific problems of a cohort of children with cortical visual i mpairment, was asked of the parents of 200 children with no history of cere bral pathology, aged 5 to 12 years. one hundred and ninety-two parents gave reliable consistent responses. The results show a progressive improvement in performance with age, culminating in few 11- and le-year olds having fre quent problems, apart from 8% having frequent difficulty with orientation i n new surroundings and 2% having problems with simultaneous perception task s. The parents of 52 children (aged 5 to lr years) with shunted hydrocephal us were then asked the same set of questions, Evidence of cognitive visual problems was identified in 27 of these children of whom 16 manifested multi ple difficulties, The disabilities identified by our study comprised proble ms with: shape recognition, simultaneous perception, perception of movement , colour perception, orientation, object recognition, and face recognition. The range, nature, and combinations of these disorders are presented in th is paper.