The Cerebral Palsy Research Network will be hosting its May MyCP webinar on the topic of cerebral (or cortical) visual impairment (CVI) as a common co-occurring condition with cerebral palsy (CP). CVI impedes the brain’s ability to perceive and interpret what is seen through the eyes which can lead to developmental and learning challenges and may also impact fine and gross motor function. The webinar will be next Wednesday, May 22 at 8 pm ET. Corinna Bauer, PhD, Karen Harpster, PhD, OTR/L, and Michele Shusterman who are developing a study of CVI across the lifespan, will discuss basic concepts about CVI as well as the state of treatment and research for CVI in the CP population. Michele Shusterman will discuss CVI from the parent perspective.

Preliminary data indicates that people with CP are three times more likely to have visual impairments and as many as 87% of people with CP may have the visual perception dysfunction attributed to CVI. But vision and visual perception are currently NOT routinely screened for and/or evaluated as a standard of care for people with CP. There is also limited data available in the literature as to how vision is impacted in adults with CP.

Drs Bauer and Harpster will describe what is known and unknown about CVI and how they plan to study it using CP Research Network resources in both the pediatric and adult populations. Given the distribution of ages the webinar should be meaningful to parents and people with CP.

The CP Research Network has been engaged with the National Eye Institute of the National Institutes of Health to advise on the creation of a CVI registry. The Network is excited to present this new research concept and gather experience from community members to help shape the direction of our research and our registry. The webinar will be a mix of presentation and discussion.

Members of the community and clinicians are welcome to join this free webinar by registering in advance. The webinar will be recorded and posted to our YouTube channel.

Click here to see Cerebral Visual Impairment (CVI) and Cerebral Palsy