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Updated: Aug 18, 2026
An Automated Method for Assessing Visual Acuity in Infants and Toddlers Using an Eye-Tracking System
Published on: March 17, 2023
Refractive errors in infancy predict reduced performance on the movement assessment battery for children at 3 1/2 and
Janette Atkinson1, Marko Nardini, Shirley Anker
1Visual Development Unit, Department of Psychology, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK. j.atkinson@ucl.ac.uk
Insights
Infant hyperopia (farsightedness) is linked to mild motor skill deficits in children, affecting manual dexterity, balance, and ball skills. These deficits appear widespread, not isolated to a few individuals.
Area of Science:
- Ophthalmology
- Developmental Pediatrics
- Motor Development
Background:
- Significant hyperopia in infancy has been previously associated with mild visuocognitive and visuomotor deficits.
- Early visual impairments may impact broader developmental trajectories, including motor skills.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare the motor skills of children with and without a history of infantile hyperopia.
- To assess motor development using the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (Movement ABC) at two key developmental stages.
Main Methods:
- A longitudinal study comparing a hyperopic infant group with an emmetropic control group.
- Motor skills assessed using the Movement ABC at 3 years 6 months and 5 years 6 months.
- Inclusion of detailed demographic data for both groups at each testing age.
Main Results:
- The hyperopic group demonstrated significantly poorer motor skills overall at both 3.5 and 5.5 years.
- Deficits were observed across all Movement ABC categories: manual dexterity, balance, and ball skills.
- Score distributions indicated mild, widespread motor deficits in the hyperopic group, not isolated to a few children.
Conclusions:
- Infantile hyperopia is a predictor of mild, pervasive motor skill deficits in early childhood.
- The Movement ABC is a valuable tool for assessing motor development in children under four years old.
- These findings highlight the importance of early visual screening for identifying potential developmental delays.
Abstract:
We have previously reported that significant hyperopia at 9 months predicts mild deficits on visuocognitive and visuomotor measures between 2 years and 5 years 6 months. Here we compare the motor skills of children who had been hyperopic in infancy (hyperopic group) with those who had been emmetropic (control group), using the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (Movement ABC). Children were tested at 3 years 6 months (hyperopic group: 47 males, 63 females, mean age 3 y 7 mo, SD 1.6 mo; control group: 61 males, 70 females, mean age 3 y 7 mo, SD 1.2 mo) and at 5 years 6 months (hyperopic group: 43 males, 56 females, mean age 5 y 4 mo, SD 1.7 mo; control group: 51 males, 62 females, mean age 5 y 3 mo, SD 1.6 mo). The hyperopic group performed significantly worse at both ages, overall and on at least one test from each category of motor skill (manual dexterity, balance, and ball skills). Distributions of scores showed that these differences were not due to poor performance by a minority but to a widespread mild deficit in the hyperopic group. This study also provides the first normative data on the Movement ABC for children below 4 years of age, and shows that it provides a useful measure of motor development at this young age.
