Wednesday, February 29, 2012

More visual symptoms means lower academic performance: study.

Undetected visual problems are one of the causes of academic difficulties in the classroom.

In a study published in 2006 in the journal, Optometry, researchers set out to determine whether there was an association between vision-related quality-of-life factors and academic performance.  To answer the question, the researchers used a 19-item questionnaire checklist developed by the College of Optometrists in Vision Development.

Ninety-one parents or guardians and their children in grades 3, 5 and 7 in a public school participated in the study. Both the parent and the student independently completed the vision questionnaire. The vision questionnaire scores of both groups were compared with the students results on the Stanford IX test scores for total reading, total math, total spelling, and total battery scores of the Stanford IX.

The researchers found that visual symptoms were found to be inversely correlated to academic performance.  This meant that the lower the academic score, the more symptoms were reported.

Source: Optometry - Journal of the American Optometric AssociationVolume 77, Issue 3 , Pages 116-123, March 2006