Eyesight and Academic Performance: What Parents Should Know

Eyesight and Academic Performance
As a parent, one of your biggest priorities is probably ensuring your kid does well in school. After all, great academic performance can put them in a better position to succeed later in life. That’s why you may be doing everything in your power to help them as they study, encouraging them to really dig into the topics they’re learning and making everything more fun with the various facts, jokes, quizzes, and worksheets we have to offer here on SmartClass4Kids.com.

At the same time, it’s important to acknowledge that academic performance can also be
influenced by factors outside your control. Among the biggest ones you’ll want to pay
attention to? Eyesight. As researchers expand their knowledge on eye health, they’re
finding that poor eyesight can worsen academic performance.

One reason you may want to pay attention to this is the fact that children’s vision is
worsening worldwide. The number of kids diagnosed with nearsightedness in particular
jumped from 24% to 36% in the past three decades alone. Due to more of them
frequently using digital devices—including for educational purposes—that population is
expected to increase by another 9% in the next 25 years. Fortunately, there’s plenty you can do to address poor eyesight and how it can affect how your kid studies. Here’s everything you need to know:

The link between eyesight and academic performance

In 2023, researchers reviewed more than a thousand studies to confirm that poor eyesight affects academic performance by impacting visual memory and motor visual skills. These issues can manifest in a number of ways. For example, blurry eyesight can make it harder for your kid to write as well as read books and classroom boards, so it will be challenging for them to understand and keep up with lessons. It can also cause symptoms like headaches and eye strain, which can cause discomfort and make it harder for them to concentrate both in school and while studying at home. Since your kid will understand and learn less, that can lead to poorer academic performance over time.

Some eye conditions are more closely associated with academic performance than others. Given its growing prevalence, myopia is among them. Another is amblyopia (lazy eye), the most common cause of poor visual acuity in kids who live in developed countries. This condition also affects depth perception, which can make reading more difficult compared to simply having blurred vision.

Eye care tips for studious kids

Test their eyes

If your kid is having a hard time at school, talk with them to determine if they feel it’s because their eyesight has gotten worse. However, younger kids may not know how to tell you they’re experiencing eye issues. In these cases, look out for signs of poor vision such as squinting, frequent eye rubbing or blinking, or headache complaints. Taking these steps can help you determine if you need to book them an eye exam. Here, an optometrist will do more than just test if your kid has 20/20 vision—they’ll also assess other visual skills that may be affecting their academic performance, such as eye movement and coordination. This test will be crucial for determining the exact condition causing their academic woes, which will help you proceed with the following tip to address it:

Provide corrective aids

Thanks to the eye exam, you’ll know exactly what you need to do to make your kid have clearer eyesight. In most cases, you’ll be given a prescription to buy eyeglasses capable of correcting conditions like nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism. Multiple brands, including Eyebuydirect, offer these in different colors, sizes, and fits, so it should be easy to find a pair that both suits and appeals to your kid regardless of age—like the Posie if they’re younger and the Small Chillax if they’re transitioning to their teenage years. If your kid is diagnosed with a more complex condition like amblyopia, however, the prescription they get from an optometrist may instead concern more specialized treatments like eye drops. Coming from brands like Eye Cool, these use atropine to blur vision in your kid’s stronger eye to even out their eyesight and make it easier to focus. Be sure to procure these corrective aids as soon as possible so you can immediately prevent poor eyesight from further affecting both your kid’s well-being and academic performance.

Upgrade their workspace

Go beyond simply correcting your kid’s eyesight by ensuring they study in an environment that prevents headaches and eye strain. A poorly lit workspace, for example, will make their eyes work harder just to clearly view and understand their learning materials—even if they’re already using eyeglasses or eye drops. To avoid that, ensure their study environment is lit with overhead fixtures or desk lamps. Consider leveraging warm or soft white light bulbs, which can increase focus and attention using higher color temperatures that subtly mimic sunlight to enhance alertness. That way, your kid will benefit from lights that prevent eye strain while simultaneously helping them focus while studying. If your kid is older and uses devices for schoolwork, it will also help to ensure they view their screens at eye level using a laptop stand or dedicated monitor. These will make it easier for them to keep their screen at least 16 to 30 inches away from their eyes. Anything closer can cause symptoms like eye strain, discomfort, and headaches that can worsen their academic performance—even if you’ve already helped correct their vision.

Encourage frequent breaks

Regardless of whether they’re poring over paper worksheets or a digital screen, studious kids often do what eye care professionals call close work. Tasks like reading and writing require the eyes to prioritize near-over-far vision. That can cause conditions like myopia to worsen, even if your kid already leverages corrective aids like eyeglasses.

Longer study sessions can also lock the eye muscles in one position, tiring them out faster and causing eye strain. If your kid uses digital devices to do their homework, they may even experience more discomfort. Our collection of facts on the human eye notes that, on average, we blink 12 times a minute. When using screens, that drops drastically to five times a minute. Because blinking helps tear glands moisturize the eye, that lower blink rate can cause dryness. All these symptoms can make your kid uncomfortable enough to reduce their focus while studying, so encourage them to take frequent breaks. The easiest one for them to follow will probably be the 20-20-20 rule. Set a timer for every 20 minutes, which will remind them to look at something 20 feet away from their work for 20 seconds. Doing so will help their eyes blink more, practice their far vision, and keep
their muscles strong, which can prevent everything from eye strain and dryness to the progression of conditions like myopia.

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