September is Cortical Visual Impairment Awareness Month—CVI Awareness Month for short. If you’ve never heard of CVI, you aren’t alone. Even eye doctors often fail to recognize it: Perkins School for the Blind estimates that 80 percent of cases are undiagnosed.
And yet CVI is the leading cause of childhood vision disabilities, affecting nearly 180,500 children in the U.S. One reason it gets overlooked is that standard eye checkups only look at the physical eye, while CVI is caused by damage in the brain’s visual cortex. Diagnosing it usually takes a specialist trained in both ophthalmology and neurology.
What It’s Like
CVI risk is higher for children who were born prematurely, have neurodivergent conditions, or had early seizures/illness/head injury. Regardless of the exact cause, most people with CVI have typical eye structure. They can “see” in the literal physical sense, but it’s like trying to access a fancy website on a ten-year-old smartphone: their brains lack full capacity for processing visual input.
If your child has several of the following symptoms, CVI could be the cause:
- Infrequent or sporadic blinking
- Lack of interest in surroundings, especially stationary or complex layouts
- Staring at bright lights for unusually long periods—or flinching away from light
- Little reaction to movement near their face, or in their peripheral-vision areas
- Groping for things they want to pick up, or reaching for things without looking directly at them
- Walking/crawling infrequently, slowly, and/or while constantly reaching forward
- Responding quickly to familiar voices but not familiar faces
One clue that any of this may be due to CVI (rather than another type of vision problem): symptoms come and go rather than being consistent from day to day. Many people with CVI can process some visual input on “good days,” but not when their brains are occupied with fatigue, stress, or other distractions.
My Child Has CVI—What Can I Do?
If you suspect CVI, insist that your child be tested for it. As with most disabilities, prompt diagnosis means better prognosis—not because CVI is “curable,” but because of the early start on practicing better life skills. And finding the best assistive technology.
There are many helpful technologies for blindness/low vision in general. If you want something more specific, BridgingApps has:
- A list of Apps for Cortical Visual Impairments or CVI, compiled with help from parents and teachers. Includes tools for improving visual comprehension through movement, contrast, and eye-hand coordination.
- A blog post on Tools and Tech Tips to Support Kids with Cortical Visual Impairments. This was published in 2022, so not all resource links are guaranteed current; but it still has plenty of useful information.
The Perkins School website has a whole section devoted to CVI. Here are a few recommended resources:
- (Physical equipment) Brailler and Braille Bloom™ for tactile literacy, including digital literacy
- Educator’s Edge
- Facebook group
- Grace’s life with CVI and superpower skills
- Instagram page
- Mindful of assumptions: Disability, CVI, and the burden of being misunderstood
- Pediatric stroke education series
- Permission to talk about the hard stuff
- Webinar recordings
- What do you need to know about CVI, complex communication needs, and AAC systems?
- YouTube channel
The Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired also has CVI-specific resources on its website.
P.S. Other Cortical Sensory Impairments
CVI is the most common cortical sensory impairment—but not the only one.
Cortical hearing impairment deserves a mention because September is also National Deaf Awareness Month. Most people with CHI have typical ear structure but lack conscious hearing ability. Many also:
- React to sudden noises without knowing why. (Physical reflexes, not being dependent on the cortex, can “hear” sounds that the conscious mind can’t.)
- Comprehend some types of sounds (e.g., music) but are deaf to other types (e.g., spoken words).
Cortical somatosensory impairment affects the perception of physical sensations. It may be due to cerebral palsy, brain injury, or a stroke. Symptoms can include:
- Inability to feel things brushing against or pressing on the skin.
- Being unable to judge an object’s shape, size, or texture by touch alone.
- Feeling detached from one’s own body (e.g., not feeling whether an elbow is bent or straight).
- Stumbling or other “clumsy” movements.
- Poor balance.
- Reduced awareness of heat and cold.
- Finding that food tastes bland or flat (due to loss of “tongue-tingling” sensations).
Depending on the cause, somatosensory impairment may be temporary or “curable.” As with all cortical sensory impairments, proper diagnosis and therapy can improve quality of life.
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Special P.S. for ESGH clients: Our annual Pumpkin Patch is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, October 27. It’ll be here sooner than you think, so mark your calendar!