Evaluation of visual acuity of small children with preferential looking methods

With preferential looking (PL) techniques, especially the Acuity Card Procedure (Teller Acuity Cards), the visual acuity in small children can be determined. PL-testing was used in 294 children in the Strabismus and Amblyopia Department of the Ophthamology Hospital in Kraków. These children had been directed from other ophthalmologic departments. Almost all of them showed general retardation and their visual acuity could not be tested with traditional methods. The testing was considered positive when the visual acuity of each eye could be determined separately. Such result was obtained in 230 children (78.2% of all patients). The remaining group consisted of 59 children (20.0%) who were tested only binocularly and 5 children (1.8%) by whom no testing was possible.