Abstract
Purpose :
The purpose of the study was to quantify the prevalence of cross-dominance in children in the Pomona Unified School District.
Methods :
Over the course of five years, 2009-2013, 11,406 children ages 5-18 years from the Pomona Unified School District were screened for hand and eye dominance. The children were tested by 1st year optometry students as a component during the screening battery. Study procedures were conducted at local schools in Pomona, CA. The hand dominance was determined by the preferred hand used for using a pencil to write their name or draw a circle. The eye dominance was determined when a child was instructed to stand centered over a custom kaleidoscope device and instructed to quickly hold it up to their eye and tell tester what they saw inside the device. Individuals were deemed unidominant if same hand and eye dominance was observed and, cross-dominant if different eye and hand dominance, were observed. Complete sets of data were available for 11,406 children at the time of this analysis.
Results :
There were 5949 boys and 5447 girls ranging from ages (5 to 18 years). The majority of individuals were right hand dominant (n= 10386; 91.05% and n= 1021; 8.95%right and left handed respectively). Unidominance was observed in 72.25% of individuals whereas cross-dominance was observed in 27.75% of individuals. There were slightly more cross-dominant males when compared to females (n= 449; 5.9%)
Conclusions :
The prevalence of right handedness and left handedness and ocular dominance in this study population is consistent with past literature. Cross dominance may be associated with reading speed, reading comprehension, and academic performance which at this time, remains to be evaluated.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.