Is your kid finding it hard to be attentive in school? Beware, he or she may be suffering from farsightedness, researchers say.
Farsightedness or hyperopia — an eye problem where distant objects may be seen more clearly than objects that are near — affects around four to 14 per cent of preschoolers.
According to the study, preschoolers or kindergartners who suffer from hyperopia face attention problems that affect their academic performance.
Such kids also face early learning problems.
“Preschool and kindergarten children with uncorrected farsightedness have decreased early literacy and face more deficits in addition,” said Marjean Taylor Kulp, Professor at the Ohio State University in the US.
Hyperopia often goes undetected in younger children. Optical glasses are not always recommended in such cases, the researchers said.
“It’s important for us to identify these children and especially identify those who are having learning difficulties because of their vision,” Kulp noted.
For the study, published in the journal Optometry and Vision Science, the researchers tested preschool children with moderate farsightedness and normal vision.
They evaluated the children on account of their attention, visual perception and the ability to integrate visual perception and motor skills (eye-hand coordination or copying skills).
The study found that the children who were moderately farsighted scored more poorly in the attention-related tests.
