Young children with severe physical disabilities who have little or no functional speech can rely almost entirely on their looking skills to engage with the world around them, interact with others and learn. Observation of these children's spontaneous and responsive gaze behaviours can be an effective way of assessing understanding of language, learning and participation in activities.
However, for observation of gaze behaviour to be of clinical value as an indicator of performance, clinicians need to first determine the child's core repertoire of functional gaze control skills.
The aim of the Gaze project was to devise a method in which a child's functional gaze abilities could be assessed. Establishing a shared understanding of the profile of a child's functional gaze control skills will support clinicians and families to develop shared expectations for that child's current behaviour while delivering appropriate individualised intervention to support skills development.
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