Nov 06, 2021 12:00:00

Experiments show that giving glasses to children with poor eyesight improves academic performance

When you look at a child wearing glasses, many people will feel that they are smart. In fact, a large-scale experiment with more than 2,000 children revealed that 'giving proper glasses to children with poor eyesight improves their academic performance.'

Effect of a Randomized Interventional School-Based Vision Program on Academic Performance of Students in Grades 3 to 7: A Cluster Randomized Clinical Trial | Ophthalmology | JAMA Ophthalmology | JAMA Network

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaophthalmology/article-abstract/2783867

Eyeglasses for school kids boost academic performance, study finds | Hub
https://hub.jhu.edu/2021/09/09/glasses-boost-student-performance-vision-for-baltimore/

Landmark Vision Experiment in Kids Reveals What We Should Have Seen All Along
https://www.sciencealert.com/groundbreaking-vision-experiment-shows-what-we-what-we-should-have-seen-all-along

It may be a stereotypical idea to connect glasses with grades, but if you have bad eyesight and you don't wear glasses, it may be difficult to see the blackboard in school classes or read the small letters in the textbook. It's a fact. However, in the United States, there are more than 2 million children who have poor eyesight but do not have proper glasses.

So Johns Hopkins University and the non-profit Vision To Learn team have launched a school-based program called Vision for Baltimore. The program provides free vision tests to children attending public schools and provides them with the right amount of eyeglasses. Vision for Baltimore, which started in 2016, has measured the eyesight of 64,000 children in five years and has distributed more than 8,000 glasses in total.

In parallel with the free distribution program, research teams such as Johns Hopkins University will randomize 2304 students in grades 3-7 (3rd grade to 1st grade in Japan) from 2016 to 2019. A comparative test was conducted. In this experiment, the students were divided into two groups, the experimental group was given appropriate glasses based on a visual acuity test, and the control group was not given glasses.

Reading and math tests were performed at the beginning of the experiment and one year later to compare the results of the two groups. Was confirmed to have improved. The results showed that the effects of glasses were particularly significant for the students with the lowest grades at the start of the experiment, the girls, and the students receiving special needs education.

'We have shown that giving children glasses can help them succeed in school,' said Megan Collins , an associate professor of ophthalmology at John's Hopkins University. It has brought the greatest benefit to those in need, those who are struggling at school. '

The improvement in academic performance from being given glasses was comparable to receiving an additional 2-4 months of education compared to students who were not given glasses. In particular, in the case of students with the lowest grades of 25% and students receiving special needs education, it was said that the improvement of grades equivalent to 4 to 6 months of additional learning was seen by being given glasses.

However, the improvement in performance due to being given glasses did not last in the test two years later. The research team suspects that the reason for this is that students have stopped wearing glasses over time because they broke or lost their glasses. Researchers said that if you want to improve your students' performance by giving them glasses, you need to make sure they are wearing them properly and develop an initiative to change lenses as needed.