Eyesight and Academic Performance: What Parents Should Know
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
Provide corrective aids
Upgrade their workspace
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.