School performance: visual acuity interference Desempenho escolar: interferência da acuidade visual

Objective: We intend to evaluate the prevalence of visual disorders among 8 to 10-year-old students from a public school in Pouso Alegre, state of Minas Gerais, as well as verify the possible legitimacy of the correlation between a poor school performance and some kind of visual deficit. Methods: We conducted a transversal and quantitative study whose target were the students enrolled in the elementary course (2 nd to 4 th grade) of Pio XII Municipal School in the academic year of 2009. We examined the students’ visual acuity using Snellen optometric chart and investigating their report card. Results: We assessed 201 children. In what concerns visual acuity, 11.4% of the sample showed altered visual acuity. When we analyzed their Mathematics grades, we observed that the students with visual deficit had grades significantly lower than those ones with normal acuity (p = 0.032). We did not notice any statistical significance in the comparison between their Portuguese grades during this initial sorting out. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that a nonidentified visual disorder may interfere in child school performance.