Bottom Line: Children with eye conditions commonly referred to as lazy eye and crossed eyes were slower at marking answers on multiple-choice answer forms typically used in timed, standardized tests.
Why The Research Is Interesting: Impairment caused by lazy eye (amblyopia) or crossed eyes (strabismus) may affect the speed with which a child can mark answers with a pencil on a multiple-choice answer form.
Who and When : 85 school-age children (average age 10): 47 children with lazy eye, 18 children who had been treated for crossed eyes, and 20 children without these conditions for comparison; study conducted from May 2014 to November 2017
What (Study Measures and Outcomes) : Children were asked to transfer the pre-marked correct answers from a standardized reading achievement test booklet to a multiple-choice answer form as quickly as possible without making mistakes or reading the text (exposures); time to complete the task (outcome)
How (Study Design) : This was an observational study. Researchers were not intervening for purposes of the study and cannot control all the natural differences that could explain the study findings.
Authors: Krista R. Kelly, Ph.D., Retina Foundation of the Southwest, Dallas, and coauthors
Results: Children with lazy eye or crossed eyes required approximately 28 percent more time to complete a 40 question multiple-choice answer sheet than children without eye conditions.
Study Limitations: The authors did not test children to determine whether they had dyslexia, relying on parental report regarding this criterion to be excluded from the study.
Related material: The commentary, " Visuomotor Consequences of Abnormal Binocular Vision," by Tina Y. Gao, B.Optom., Ph.D., of the University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand, is also available on the For The Media website .
To Learn More: The full study is available on the For The Media website .
(doi:10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2018.2295)
Editor's Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.
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JAMA Ophthalmology