VIDBE-Q Volume 64 Issue 4
14
when the child enters specialized VI services through an Early Intervention
(EI) program, then again when the child exits specialized VI services.
Survey information is collected by the educational professional who is
providing the specialized EI/VI service (typically a teacher of children with
VI) through a combination of parent report and/or records review (if records
are available). The Babies Count advisory committee, comprised of
members from ECVIA, recommend that a parent interview is always part of
data collection. Information is collected in three main areas of inquiry: (a)
the child's vision etiology and functioning, related medical information, and
areas of existing developmental delay, (b) variables related to the child's
family, and (c) variables related to the child's early intervention services.
In 2018, Dr. DeEtte Snyder completed the fourth and most recent
analysis of the data from Babies Count in her doctoral dissertation. Some
highlights of that research include the shift in visual condition etiology, the
high prevalence of co-existing development disabilities and other medical
conditions, and the diversity and size Individual Family Service Plan (IFSP)
teams. In the three previous analyses of data from Hatton (2001), Hatton,
Schwietz, Boyer, & Rychwalski (2007), and Hatton, Ivy, and Boyer (2013),
Cortical Visual Impairment (CVI), Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP), and
Optic Nerve Hypoplasia (ONH) were, in that order, the top reported eye
