Reading Performance in Preterm Children

Supervisors:

• Dr Frank Proudlock fap1@le.ac.uk
• Dr Vicky McGowan  vm88@le.ac.uk

Project description:

In the UK around one in 13 children are born prematurely (at less than 37 weeks gestational age), and one in 200 are born extremely preterm (at less than 28 weeks gestational age). These children often experience delayed development of the brain, eyes, and visual system, with the likelihood increasing the earlier a child is born. These challenges can continue across childhood and adulthood, resulting in poorer long-term outcomes across many different areas of cognitive functioning.

A major concern is that children born prematurity typically experience poorer reading abilities than those born at term. This is likely to contribute to poorer long-term outcomes in those born prematurity, as reading difficulties are known to negatively affect many areas of life, including academic achievement, employment, and wellbeing. Presently, there is limited understanding of why prematurity is associated with reading difficulties. This can generate difficulties for health and educational professionals in identifying the exact causes of reading deficits and providing early, effective support.

The ability to read well necessitates the complex interplay of cognitive, visual, and eye movement abilities. For example, while reading this sentence you are moving your eyes along the page in order to obtain visual information from tiny dots and lines, which are then transformed into words and concepts. Prematurity is likely to affect these different components of reading, yet their individual contributions to reading difficulties experienced by preterm children remain unclear.
This PhD aims to investigate the relative contributions of cognitive, visual, and eye movement abilities in explaining the reading difficulties experienced by preterm children. 

The research will be led by Dr Frank Proudlock, who has extensive research experience in children’s eye disease and optical coherence imaging and analysis, along with Dr Vicky McGowan, who expertise in the assessment of reading using high-resolution eye movement recording techniques. The successful candidate will join the Vision Sciences group within the School of Psychology and Vision Sciences at the University of Leicester. This unique group brings together expertise in both psychology and ophthalmology to understand functional vision. We include one of the largest groups of reading researchers in the UK, with expertise in the role of vision and eye movements in reading ability. We also include the Ulverscroft Eye Unit, which has an international reputation for research into paediatric ophthalmology and imaging of the eyes using optical coherence tomography. We have an excellent track-record of supporting students and enabling career progression within our unit supported by the wider university.

The PhD is suitable for graduates with a psychology or biological sciences background or related discipline. Candidates with experience in clinical or vision-related disciplines are also encouraged to apply.

References: 

1. Educational outcomes in extremely preterm children: neuropsychological correlates and predictors of attainment. Johnson S, Wolke D, Hennessy E, Marlow N. Dev Neuropsychol. 2011;36(1):74-95. doi: 10.1080/87565641.2011.540541.

2. Reading Individual Words Within Sentences in Infantile Nystagmus. Prakash E, McLean RJ, White SJ, Paterson KB, Gottlob I, Proudlock FA. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2019 May 1;60(6):2226-2236. doi: 10.1167/iovs.18-25793.

3. Are older adults more risky readers? Evidence from meta-analysis. Zhang J, Warrington KL, Li L, Pagán A, Paterson KB, White SJ, McGowan VA. Psychol Aging. 2022 Mar;37(2):239-259. doi: 10.1037/pag0000522. 

4. Effects of Normative Aging on Eye Movements during Reading. Paterson KB, McGowan VA, Warrington KL, Li L, Li S, Xie F, Chang M, Zhao S, Pagán A, White SJ, Wang J. Vision (Basel). 2020 Jan 14;4(1):7. doi: 10.3390/vision4010007.

5. Use of Hand-Held Optical Coherence Tomography during Retinopathy of Prematurity Screening Demonstrates an Increased Outer Retina from Early Postmenstrual Age in Preterm Infants with Retinopathy of Prematurity. Anwar S, Nath M, Patel A, Tyradellis S, Gottlob I, Proudlock FA. Retina. 2024 Feb 1;44(2):306-315. doi: 10.1097/IAE.0000000000003957.

6. Severity of cystoid macular oedema in preterm infants observed using hand-held spectral domain optical coherence tomography improves weekly with postmenstrual age. Anwar S, Nath M, Gottlob I, Proudlock FA. Eye (Lond). 2023 Oct;37(14):3009-3014. doi: 10.1038/s41433-023-02461-8. 

7. Extended optical treatment versus early patching with an intensive patching regimen in children with amblyopia in Europe (EuPatch): a multicentre, randomised controlled trial. Proudlock FA, Hisaund M, Maconachie G, Papageorgiou E, Manouchehrinia A, Dahlmann-Noor A, Khandelwal P, Self J, Beisse C, Gottlob I; EUPatch study group. Lancet. 2024 May 4;403(10438):1766-1778. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(23)02893-3.