Reading fluency, visual skills and academic performance in Primary Education students from the Barcelona metropolitan area

Abstract

In order to achieve reading fluency, an optimal performance of visual skills is needed. Impaired visual skills in children at High Level Primary School could allow to both wrong and slow reading, and also to a lower academic performance. The present study assessed prevalence of visual disfunctionalities in motility, binocularity and accomodation, and their relationship with reading and academic performances in a sample of 5th Grade children (n=187). Results showed a high prevalence of cases (46,5%) with disfunction in motility (abnormal eye-saccadic movements). This disfunction was related with lower reading speed, as well as with lower academic performances in mathematics and language. Disfunction in binocularity was related with a higher number of mistakes in text-reading. These results suggest that screening procedures to identify impaired visual skills and visual therapies to correct them must be applied in order to enhance reading and academic performances.