Visual profile of children with handwriting difficulties in Hong Kong Chinese

Area of Science:

• Ophthalmology
• Developmental Pediatrics
• Educational Psychology

Background:

• Handwriting difficulties (HWD) are prevalent among children.
• Existing research on visual profiles of HWD predominantly focuses on alphabetic languages.
• Limited studies have explored visual profiles specific to Chinese HWD.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine the visual profiles of children experiencing handwriting difficulties in Hong Kong Chinese.
• To identify specific visual and motor skill deficits associated with Chinese HWD.

Main Methods:

• Recruited 49 children with HWD and 27 controls for comprehensive vision and motor skill assessments.
• Evaluated ocular health, refraction, accommodative functions, and binocularity.
• Assessed visual perception using Gardner reversal frequency test and Test of Visual Perceptual Skills (non-motor)-revised.
• Measured motor skills via Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual Motor Integration and Detroit Test of Motor Speed and Precision.

Main Results:

• Children with HWD exhibited higher percentages of tropia (6.1%) and phoria (>6 prism dioptres, 14.3%).
• Age-adjusted analysis revealed significantly poorer accommodative facility, directionality, visual discrimination, visual spatial relation, visual form constancy, visual sequential memory, visual figure ground, visual closure, and visual motor integration in children with HWD.
• Established distinct visual profiles for children with Chinese HWD.

Conclusions:

• Children with Chinese HWD present with specific visual and visual-motor deficits.
• The identified visual profiles underscore the need for further research into optometric interventions for assessment and remediation.
• This study contributes crucial data on the visual characteristics of children with HWD in a non-alphabetic writing system.