This project will investigate the impact of combined mild hearing and visual loss in childhood on educational attainment in later years.

Background
Problems with vision and hearing are extremely common in childhood. In most cases, the impairment is mild and often transient; severe visual or hearing impairments are relatively rare in the UK.
It is well established that severe visual and hearing impairments have a detrimental effect on childhood development, behaviour and educational attainment. The impact of mild visual or hearing impairment is less well characterized, but appears to be more variable, dependent on additional factors such as underlying cause, duration and socioeconomic factors.
The research question is: what is the effect of combined mild hearing and visual impairment on development during childhood and educational attainment?.

Project Description
Using data from the ALSPAC study, this project aims to address this question, focusing specifically on the educational attainment of children with combined mild visual and hearing impairments. The ALSPAC birth cohort study has gathered data on over 14,000 individuals, providing us with a unique opportunity to investigate this question.

We will use data collected from the ALSPAC research clinic when participants were 7 years of age to identify all children with both mild visual and hearing impairments.Their subsequent Keystage 2 and GCSE results will be compared with those of children with normal vision and hearing at age 7, and those with a single hearing or visual impairment.

When comparing these results, we will take into account factors that may be independently associated with both hearing and vision in childhood and educational performance. For example, low socioeconomic status is risk factor for problems with vision and hearing, and also associated with lower educational attainment. Other factors we will be adjusting for include gender, birth weight, maternal education and ethnicity.

If our initial results do indicate that combined mild visual and hearing impairments have a negative impact on educational attainment, we will attempt to understand why this is. We will thus look at factors such as working memory, reading skills and co-occuring developmental disorders (Dyslexia, Autism & Dyspraxia) to see if children with combined hearing and visual impairments are more likely to perform worse on these measures, or display particular behavioral traits which may explain differences in educational attainment at age 16.

Finally, the results of this study may have implications for the way children with combined mild visual and hearing impairments are identified and supported through their education.