Purpose This scoping study sought to establish a baseline for how well the needs of children with cortical visual impairment (CVI) who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) are currently aligned with the services available to them. CVI is the most common cause of visual impairment in children today, and AAC methods rely heavily on vision. Yet, the prevalence of CVI in children who use AAC methods is not yet known, and there is virtually no research concerning use of AAC with children with CVI. Our overarching goals were to identify barriers and suggest priorities for improving outcomes for these children. Method Surveys were distributed anonymously online to professionals from multiple disciplines in different school-based settings and to parents of children with CVI who use AAC. Results School-based professionals identified many barriers, including a lack of knowledge and skills about CVI and about AAC, limited access to training and experts, and concerns about services being delivered in isolated silos with limited time allotted for interprofessional collaboration and planning. Parent reported that their children (M age = 11 years) continued to rely predominantly on body-based forms of communication and lacked access to symbolic language, which, in AAC, is primarily visually based. Conclusions The barriers to services identified by school-based professionals indicate a need to develop and disseminate reliable information about CVI and AAC, both at a preservice and in-service level and, while doing so, to respect the diversity of stakeholders who need this information, including parents. Future research on what types of AAC approaches support the development of language and communication skills for children with CVI is essential.

中文翻译：

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有皮质视觉障碍和复杂沟通需求的儿童：确定需求与当前实践之间的差距。

目的 本范围界定研究旨在为使用辅助性和替代性交流 (AAC) 的皮层视力障碍 (CVI) 儿童的需求与目前提供给他们的服务保持一致的程度建立基线。CVI 是当今儿童视力障碍的最常见原因，而 AAC 方法严重依赖于视力。然而，尚不清楚使用 AAC 方法的儿童中 CVI 的患病率，并且几乎没有关于使用 AAC 与 CVI 儿童的研究。我们的首要目标是找出障碍并提出改善这些儿童结果的优先事项。方法调查在线匿名分发给来自不同学校环境的多个学科的专业人士以及使用 AAC 的 CVI 儿童的父母。结果 在校的专业人员发现了许多障碍，包括缺乏关于 CVI 和 AAC 的知识和技能、获得培训和专家的机会有限，以及担心在孤立的孤岛中提供服务，分配给跨专业合作和规划的时间有限。家长报告说，他们的孩子（M 年龄 = 11 岁）继续主要依赖基于身体的交流形式，并且无法使用符号语言，而符号语言在 AAC 中主要基于视觉。结论 学校专业人员确定的服务障碍表明需要在服务前和服务中开发和传播有关 CVI 和 AAC 的可靠信息，同时尊重需要这些信息的利益相关者的多样性，包括父母。