Manual control and common eye problems in 6- to 16-year-old children

Abstract

Purpose : Earlier studies have suggested that poor manual control could detrimentally affect learning in children. The purpose in this study was to investigate the relationship between manual control and common eye problems in children.

Methods : This cross-sectional study included 173 (87 males) children and adolescents aged 6 to 16 years (mean ± SD 10.5 ± 3.4) who participated in a school vision program offered to children in 2nd, 5th and 10th grade in Kongsberg municipality, Norway. Refractive error, visual acuity, binocular vision, ocular biometry measurements and a medical history were obtained for all children. Children who failed (according to predetermined criteria) one or more of these measures were considered to have an uncorrected eye or vision problem and were referred to the university eye clinic. All children completed the Leeds Clinical Kinematic Assessment Tool (CKAT, Flatters et al. 2014;9(2):e88692) — a manual control task where the child made a series of aiming movements and traced two abstract shapes with a handheld stylus on a digital tablet. Welch t-test was used for statistical analysis.

Results : Forty-three (25%) children were classified to have a common uncorrected eye or vision problem. This group had significantly poorer performance in aiming (movement time mean ± SD 1.44 ± 0.26 seconds) compared to those with normal eye and vision status (1.33 ± 0.25 seconds, p=0.018). There was no group difference for tracing (penalised Path Accuracy (pPA) Shape A: 1.37 ± 0.49 vs. 1.51 ± 0.4, p=0.10 and Shape B: 1.32 ± 0.53 vs. 1.39 ± 0.42, p=0.48).

Conclusions : The results suggest that common uncorrected eye and vision problems could affect manual control in children. Because learning benefits from good manual control, uncorrected eye and vision problems may pose an implicit disadvantage for learning.

This abstract was presented at the 2022 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Denver, CO, May 1-4, 2022, and virtually.