Newsletter 5 - What happens when a whole school district embraces CVI?
Hello and welcome
The Austin Assessment is already proving itself to be an invaluable tool for research and as part of CVI assessments, for two reasons, it’s accurate and children love it. My main purpose in developing it however was to identify children who struggle due to unknown and therefore, unsupported CVI, as I did.
We know children with CVI are in every class in every school. There may be many in every class (see CVI Scotland’s CVI- The Missing Middle). They are the children I am determined to reach.
Recently I was thrilled to learn that following CVI professional development training including the Austin Assessment, a school district, Wolf Creek Public Schools in Central Alberta, Canada, is to start screening for CVI in schools using the Austin Assessment.
CVI needs to be embraced in every school!
What happens when a school district embraces CVI?
CVI-informed adaptations allowed a student with cerebral visual impairment to successfully demonstrate her understanding of numerals—something her educational team previously believed she could not do.
(Quote from Wolf Creek Public Schools CVI Training Day).
Wolf Creek Public Schools, you are leaders in the field! You are trailblazers. As far as we know you are the first district in the world to embrace CVI screening across your schools, combined with training for your educators.
Through identifying children affected by CVI and up-skilling educators, lives are transformed.
For the children and their families, a life time of difficulties starts to make sense.
What happens next? Families want to learn more, children want to learn more, and children, families and schools work together, to improve help and support. That help and support extends school work, and includes the ‘emotional toll’ and ‘significant mental health component’ (from CVI Training Day).
This is why we have invested so much.
The Austin Assessment is an impactful tool in identifying students with potential Cerebral Visual Impairment (CVI) within our school division. The detailed information gleaned from the Austin Assessment can be used to inform instructional strategies and accommodations. It also provides school teams and families with a concrete example of how hard a student with a potential CVI works through the eye-tracking technology and the resulting PDF. With help from the Austin Assessment, our school division has moved beyond a purely ocular-centric view of vision and towards a more holistic understanding of how our students truly ‘see’ the world.
Can you help?
We are looking for others who may be interested in both raising awareness and screening in schools.
We can provide support including training from our world leading team and special rates.
Please contact me or the team at the Austin McDowell Foundation at info@austinassessment.org
What's new?
We have recently improved the indicator on the app to let you know when a child’s eyes are no longer being detected while they are completing the assessment. When you see the red icon below, it means the child’s eyes are no longer being tracked and you need to either ask the child to readjust where they are looking or move the iPad / iPhone to pick up the eyes again. When the eyes are detected again, the icon will switch to the green one.
If you have any ideas or have had any issues, we want to hear from you. Email us at info@austinassessment.org
Warm regards
Nicola