TESTING, TESTING: An appropriate healthcare professional should evaluate a person who exhibits visual loss signs to determine if these causes are treatable or if assistive devices, such as glasses, could be helpful.

IDENTIFYING VISION AND HEARING CHANGES IN PEOPLE WITH IDD AS THEY AGE

BY CRAIG ESCUDE, MD, FAAFP, FAADM

As most of us age, we begin to experience changes in our vision and hearing. We commonly associate aging with difficulty seeing closer and difficulty hearing..

Some with intellectual and developmental disabilities may have trouble communicating these changes, and the first signs of them may appear as changes in their behavior. Below is what we might observe that could indicate a vision or hearing change in someone with an intellectual disability.

VISION

Several conditions can cause visual changes as we age, including presbyopia, which is difficulty seeing close due to a decreased lens elasticity, which affects our ability to focus. Others include agerelated macular degeneration, glaucoma, cataracts, and diabetic retinopathy.

In a person who is unable to communicate changes in their vision using words, we might observe behaviors that involve frequent touching or rubbing of their eyes, finger flapping in front of their eyes, gazing at bright lights, a change in their usual head positions, including moving their head but not their eyes to look at things, and frequent shaking of their head. Visual changes might also present as a person moving their head in a circular motion to