Strabismus and isolation among children

Children aged 6 and over whose eyes cross are less likely to be invited to birthday parties than other children, according to a recent study published by the British Journal of Ophthalmology.

Dr. Daniel Mojon, a strabismus specialist at Kantonsspital in St. Gallen, Switzerland, and colleagues digitally altered photographs of six children from six identical twin pairs to create strabismus. They then asked 118 children, aged 3 to 12 years, to select whom they would invite to their birthday party. They were asked to choose four children only.

Children under 6 years of age did not show any preference between the photos of children with strabismus or normally aligned eyes. However, among the 48 children aged 6 to 8, 18 of them did not select any child with a strabismus, while 17 selected this type of child only once. None of the children selected a child with strabismus all four times. Among the 23 children aged 8 to 10, 13 of them selected only children with straight eyes and no one selected a child with strabismus all four times.

In light of these results, the study authors believe that corrective surgery for strabismus should be performed before the age of 6, to avoid this type of discrimination.