Specialized Care for Cerebral Visual Impairment (CVI)

The Cerebral Visual Impairment (CVI) Clinic offers specialized care for infants, children and teens suspected of having CVI, also known as cortical or brain-based visual impairment.

If your child is suspected of having CVI, which affects the brain's ability to process visual information, they may benefit from specialized team-based care. Our team includes eye doctors, occupational therapists (OTs), orientation and mobility (O&M) specialists, and teachers for students with visual impairments (TVI/TSVI). We aim to understand your child's functional vision and identify strategies and adaptations to help them, your family, and their school use their vision effectively in daily activities.

Why Choose Us

• Our Interdisciplinary Team of Pediatric Experts: Each clinic is staffed by a pediatric optometrist or ophthalmologist who specializes in CVI, a TVI, an O&M professional, an occupational therapist, and an eye technician. They work together to make your child feel safe and valued. They find out how your child uses their vision best and help them access the visual environment through accommodations and adaptations
• Integration with Your Child’s School: If your child receives support for their vision at school from professionals such as a Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments (TSVI/TVI) or other therapist, we welcome their involvement in your child's assessment at no additional cost. Working together brings in valuable insights from those who know your child well.
  • They can join:
    • In person at our facility
    • Remotely via Telehealth
• Treating the Whole Child: Your child is not just a patient to us. We recognize that all young people in our care have rights, responsibilities, passions and dreams. We see it as our mission to treat them as such.
• An Easy Visit: We pride ourselves on being both light-hearted and child-centered. Typical visits include active and passive observation of your child’s vision through a comprehensive vision assessment. We base our 1.5-2-hour visit on one-on-one conversations aimed at understanding how your child uses their vision in daily activities and helping you understand how to best help your child use their functional vision.

Making an Appointment

If your child’s optometrist, ophthalmologist or other healthcare or education provider thinks your child might have CVI, they can refer your child for an evaluation. Once we get the referral, we will contact you to schedule an appointment. The only requirements are that your child has a medical history that puts them at risk for CVI and has had a comprehensive eye exam within the last year.

Please call us at 513-636-3513 or email* pediatriclowvision@cchmc.org to get started. One of our team members will guide you through the process.

Preparing for Your Visit

Before your child’s CVI evaluation, there are a few things to do:

1. If we don’t have your child’s latest vision exam, please tell us where to get it or have your provider fax it to us at 513-636-7911, attention Pediatric Low Vision Program. If your child hasn’t had a recent vision exam, you can see someone locally or we can help you schedule an appointment with an eye doctor at Cincinnati Children’s. This information helps us place your child in the best CVI clinic.
2. You will need to complete a brief phone interview about your child. One of our team members will call you to ask about your child’s vision and how they use it at home, in school and in the community.
3. Let us know if you would like to include your child’s teacher or therapist (either in-person or virtually). We can arrange invitations for you.

What Should You Bring to the Appointment?

• Your child's glasses or contact lenses
• Your child's favorite books or toys
• A copy of your child's Individualized Educational Plan (IEP) and/or an example of your child’s schoolwork
• If your child uses an Augmentative Communication Device, please bring it. 

If you are traveling a long way for a CVI assessment, think about contacting Concierge Services to help plan your visit. They can help with travel, lodging and fun activities in the local area.

On the Day of Your Visit

• Plan to arrive at least 15 minutes before your appointment to park, check-in and fill out questionnaires.
• Double-check the location of your appointment. We have clinics in two different places and want to make sure you go to the correct one.
• Let us know right away if you are running late or need to reschedule.
• Our appointments usually last 90-120 minutes, and we may not be able to see you if you arrive late.

Our team comes from different departments and locations at Cincinnati Children’s for these clinics. We see over a dozen children each month, with many more on our wait list. It can be hard to reschedule a missed appointment. Repeated last-minute cancellations or “no-shows” will lower your position on our wait list.

At Your Appointment

When you come for a CVI assessment, you will meet a team of professionals:

• A pediatric optometrist or ophthalmologist who specializes in CVI.
• A technician who works with your child and helps the doctor measure and record your child’s vision.
• An occupational therapist who evaluates how your child uses their vision in daily activities and helps you understand how to modify the environment and activities to support their vision.
• An orientation & mobility specialist who evaluates how your child moves through their environment.
• A TVI (teacher of students with visual impairments) who evaluates your child’s general literacy, focuses on strategies for better school performance, and collaborates with your child’s school-based TVI, if they have one.

Each specialist brings a unique perspective to your child’s vision. We work together to understand your child’s vision, collaborate during the appointment, and create a comprehensive summary report and treatment plan after the appointment.

After Your Visit

Within two weeks after we see you, we will send the team’s comprehensive vision report to you and your child’s eye doctor.

We will also follow up with any referrals, like behavioral health, adaptive sports and recreation, and academic evaluations. The occupational therapist will meet with you in person or with telehealth to review the report and adaptations recommended to help your child use their vision better.

Contact Us

• Have your child’s eye doctor fax their most recent vision exam to the Pediatric Low Vision Program at 513-636-7911.
• You can email* us at pediatriclowvision@cchmc.org any time.
• Call the office at 513-636-3513.

*Please remember that information you send via email is neither secure nor confidential.