title: Contribution of binocular vision to the performance of complex manipulation tasks in 5-13years old visually-normal children.
abstract: Individual studies have shown that visuomotor coordination and aspects of binocular vision, such as stereoacuity and dynamic vergence control, continue to improve in normally developing children between birth and early teenage years. However, no study has systematically addressed the relationship between the development of binocular vision and fine manipulation skills. Thus, the aim of this cross-sectional study was to characterize performance of complex manipulation tasks during binocular and monocular viewing. Fifty-two children, between 5 and 13years old, performed 2 manipulation tasks: peg-board and bead-threading under randomized viewing conditions. Results showed that binocular viewing was associated with a significantly greater improvement in performance on the bead-threading task in comparison to the peg-board task and the youngest children showed the greatest decrement in task performance under the monocular viewing condition when performing the bead-threading task. Thus, the role of binocular vision in performance of fine manipulation skills is both task- and age-dependent. These findings have implications for assessment of visuomotor skills in children with abnormal binocular vision, which occurs in 2-3% of otherwise typically developing children.
authors.affiliation: Department of Kinesiology, University of Waterloo, 200 University Ave. W., Waterloo N2L 3G1, Ontario, Canada. Electronic address: falramis@uwaterloo.ca.
authors.forename: Fatimah
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Alramis
authors.affiliation: Department of Kinesiology, University of Waterloo, 200 University Ave. W., Waterloo N2L 3G1, Ontario, Canada. Electronic address: eroy@uwaterloo.ca.
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Roy
authors.affiliation: School of Optometry and Vision Science, University of Waterloo, 200 University Ave. W., Waterloo N2L 3G1, Ontario, Canada. Electronic address: lisa.christian@uwaterloo.ca.
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Christian
authors.affiliation: Department of Kinesiology, University of Waterloo, 200 University Ave. W., Waterloo N2L 3G1, Ontario, Canada. Electronic address: eniechwi@uwaterloo.ca.
authors.forename: Ewa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Niechwiej-Szwedo
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003867:Depth Perception; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009048:Motor Skills; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D015348:Vision, Binocular; D014792:Visual Acuity
keywords: Binocular vision; Development; Fine motor skills; Stereopsis