Jessica Hayton

• PhD Psychology of Education
• University College London

Closing the attainment gap for all children and young people (CYP) is vital. Yet, little is known about CYP with vision impairment (CYPVI). Our systematic review investigates academic performance amongst CYPVI, compared with sighted peers. Following the PRISMA guidelines, a systematic search across four databases identified 4,220 articles, of which...

A systematic review was conducted to understand mental health, including emotional problems and well-being, self-perception, self-esteem, and quality of life (QoL), in children and young people with vision impairment (CYPVI) aged 6-25 years. Following PRISMA guidelines, of 6623 search results, 21 studies were included in our analysis, meeting inclu...

Background: Parents report associations between children’s sleep disturbances and behaviors. Children with neurodevelopmental conditions (e.g., Williams Syndrome and autism) are consistently reported to experience increased sleeping problems. Sleep in children with vision impairment and children with a dual diagnosis of vision impairment and autism...

Purpose: Semantic fluency is potentially a useful tool for vocabulary assessment in children with vision impairment because it contains no visual test stimuli. It is not known whether in the primary school years children with vision impairment perform more poorly on semantic fluency tasks compared to their sighted peers. Method: We compared sema...

The presence of childhood vision impairment has cascading effects on educational provision and global development across cognitive, physical, and mental health domains. Effective, appropriate, and targeted support in education is legislated across the United Kingdom, influenced by the ‘access to learning, learning to access’ model. Despite reasonab...

Objective: The aim of the current study was to examine the potential relationship between sleep patterns, cortisol levels, and anxiety profiles in adolescents with Williams Syndrome (WS) compared to typically developing adolescents. Method: Thirteen adolescents with WS and thirteen TD adolescents (age range 12-18 years) were recruited. Participa...

Background: There is a growing body of research studying the impact sleep has on attention among typically developing (TD) children, but research is lacking among autistic children. Aims: The present study aimed to explore, for the first time, differences in (1) attention, (2) sleep parameters among primary school-aged Singaporean autistic child...

Sleep is crucial for development across cognitive, physical, and social-emotional domains. Sleep quality and quantity impact domains of daytime functioning, attainment, and global development. Previous work has explored sleep profiles in typically developing children and children with developmental disorders such as Down syndrome and Williams Syndr...

Dressing is a fundamental independent living skill often haphazardly acquired via visual observation. For children with vision impairment and children with Down Syndrome (where vision impairment is a component), dressing skill acquisition can be delayed due to a reduced/absent visual modality. Independent living skills is an aspect of habilitation...

The purpose of this commentary is to identify the key differences between the term Habilitation and Rehabilitation. Using historical and contemporary understandings, this commentary aims to disentangle these two terms from a developmental perspective. It is argued that these two concepts are distinct and should be appropriately reflected in interna...

Dressing is a fundamental independent living skill (ILS). Vision is an integrative sense which affords learning via sighted observation. Visual impairment (VI) denies/restricts access to learning via sight. As a result, children with VI and conditions where VI may be a component (e.g. Down syndrome (DS)) require structured, systematic support to de...

The ability to independently dress is a fundamental skill for children. Vision is an integrative sense. Sight affords the opportunity for individuals to learn independence skills via observation. The absence of vision, or a reduced visual capacity, restricts access to this form of learning (Lewis & Iselin, 2002). As a result of this restricted acce...

The ability to independently dress is a fundamental skill for children. Vision is an integrative sense. Sight affords the opportunity for individuals to learn independence skills via observation. Visual impairment (VI) restricts access to this form of learning (Lewis & Iselin, 2002). Children with VI and conditions where VI is a component (e.g. Dow...

Independent living skills such as dressing are fundamental in everyday life. Compared to sighted peers, children with visual impairment (VI) are often delayed in developing independence skills, arguably due to the inability to observe others. The present study investigated whether an interactive suite of intervention materials would aid the develop...