6-year-old kids with squint less likely to be invited to b’day parties
By ANIThursday, August 19, 2010
WASHINGTON - A new study has found that six year old kids with a squint are significantly less likely to be invited to birthday parties than their peers with normally aligned eyes.
The findings of the study suggest that corrective surgery should be performed not later than the age of 6, which is when the discrimination seems to emerge.
The researchers digitally altered photographs of six children from six identical twin pairs to create inward and outward types of visible squint to compare against normally aligned eyes.
One hundred and eighteen children between the ages of 3 and 12, who were either patients at an eye clinic or the siblings of patients, but with normally aligned eyes, were then asked to select which of the identical twins they would be prepared to invite to their birthday party.
And children under 6 didn’t make any distinction between the twins with a squint or normally aligned eyes. But children aged 6 or older were significantly less likely to select the pictures of children with a visible squint.
Among the 48 children aged between 6 and 8, 18 did not select any child with a squint; 17 selected this type of child once, 11 did so twice; two did so three times. None did so four times.
When asked if they had noticed anything particular about the twins, around one in five (19 percent) of 4 to 6 year olds commented on eye alignment, a figure that rose to 39 percentss after being asked to pay attention to the eyes in the pictures.
The authors said that a childhood squint can have a lasting psychological impact on the individual concerned and that visible differences in general have a negative impact on how children are perceived by peers.
“Our results show that schoolchildren with strabismus seem less likely to be accepted by their peers, so corrective surgery for strabismus should be performed before the age of 6 years, when negative social implications may arise,” the authors said.
The study was published online in the British Journal of Ophthalmology. (ANI)
