A pilot study of the Austin Playing Card Assessment: A tool to detect and find the degree of visual perceptual difficulties related to clutter

Abstract

The Austin Playing Card Assessment was developed to help identify visual perceptual difficulties related to clutter and to determine the nature of each child’s difficulties. The aim of this pilot study was to find out whether a task of progressively increasing difficulty, for pairing playing cards, is effective in identifying these kinds of visual difficulties. Parents of 11 research and 11 control subjects completed an inventory to ascertain whether their child’s visual behaviours were suggestive of visual perceptual difficulties. All participants completed the Austin Playing Card Assessment in two separate locations, with an ABA experimental design. The time taken to complete each level of the test was recorded. Structured observations were made of the participants’ visual behaviours when completing the assessment. Inventory scores from the research subjects indicated a higher likelihood of visual perceptual difficulties, whereas the control subjects’ scores did not. Research subjects were also slower at completing the Austin Playing Card Assessment. Independent T-tests comparing the time taken across all levels of difficulty ranged between p = .011 to p < .001. Cohen’s d calculations demonstrated a large effect size. Overall, research subjects demonstrated more indicators of visual perceptual difficulties. The Austin Playing Card Assessment has the potential to be effective for detecting and identifying visual perceptual difficulties in children. Information gathered through the assessment process could also be used to inform intervention. As this was a pilot study, further research is needed to support these findings.