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A pilot study of the effects of binocular visual deficits on children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder
Brenda Swartz1, Angelica Stella1, Ilana Gonik1
1Loyola University Chicago: Stritch School of Medicine, Maywood, Illinois, USA.
Insights
Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and binocular vision deficits surprisingly performed better on reading and verbal tasks. Further research is needed to explore visual-mediated task performance.
Area of Science:
- Neurodevelopmental Disorders
- Pediatric Ophthalmology
- Cognitive Psychology
Background:
- Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a prevalent neurodevelopmental disorder in children.
- Reading difficulties are frequently observed in children with ADHD, even without a Specific Learning Disorder.
- Co-occurring binocular vision deficits may exacerbate reading challenges in this population.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of binocular vision deficits on reading and verbal comprehension skills in children diagnosed with ADHD.
- To test the hypothesis that children with ADHD and binocular deficits would exhibit lower performance on these cognitive tasks.
Main Methods:
- A retrospective chart review design was employed.
- Data from children with and without diagnosed binocular deficits were analyzed.
- Statistical comparison of performance metrics was conducted using Mann Whitney U tests.
Main Results:
- Contrary to the initial hypothesis, children with ADHD and binocular deficits demonstrated significantly superior performance on reading and verbal comprehension tasks.
- No significant performance decrement was observed in children with ADHD and binocular dysfunction on reading and verbal reasoning assessments.
Conclusions:
- Children with ADHD and co-occurring binocular vision dysfunction did not show impaired performance on reading and verbal reasoning tasks.
- A trend towards worse performance on visually-mediated tasks suggests a need for further investigation.
- Comprehensive exploration of the relationship between binocular dysfunction and broader neuropsychological functioning in children with ADHD is warranted.
Abstract:
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is the most common child-onset neurodevelopmental disorder. Reading challenges are common in ADHD, regardless of whether or not they meet full criteria for a Specific Learning Disorder. When a child also has a binocular vision deficit, reading can be even more challenging. The purpose of this pilot study was assess the impact of binocular deficits on reading and verbal comprehension in children with ADHD. We hypothesized that children with binocular deficits would perform significantly lower. This study utilized a retrospective chart review. Means for children with and without binocular deficits were compared using Mann Whitney U tests. In contrast to our hypotheses, children with binocular deficits performed significantly better on tasks of reading and verbal comprehension. In conclusion, children with ADHD and known binocular dysfunction did not perform significantly worse on tasks of reading and verbal reasoning. By contrast, a qualitative review of the collective data shows a trend toward worse performance on tasks that were visually-mediated, which warrants further exploration. Thus, a more broad-based exploration of the potential relationship between binocular dysfunction and all aspects of neuropsychological functioning is warranted to fully understand the impact of this relatively common visual finding on neurocognitive functioning in children.
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