ABSTRACT Purpose Uncorrected, moderate hyperopia has been associated with poor emergent literacy skills. However, the eye movements of preschoolers have not yet been used to determine how well young, hyperopic children attend to text and pictures during storybook reading compared to emmetropic children. In this study, the percentage of visual on‐task time during storybook reading for 4‐ and 5‐year‐old children with uncorrected, moderate hyperopia was compared to that of their emmetropic peers. The relationship between percentage visual on‐task time and near visual function was also assessed. Methods Children received an eye exam with cycloplegic refraction to identify hyperopia (+3.00D to +6.00D with astigmatism ≤1.50D and anisometropia ≤1.00D) or emmetropia (hyperopia ≤1.0D; astigmatism, anisometropia, and myopia 0.05). Conclusions Moderately hyperopic, uncorrected 4‐ and 5‐year‐old children showed a significantly lower percentage of visual on‐task time during shared storybook reading compared to their emmetropic peers. The percentage on‐task time was moderately correlated with increased accommodative lag for the combined group of emmetropic and hyperopic children.
Oechslin et al. (Sun,) studied this question.