“There is compelling evidence of the association between vision problems in children and poor academic achievement. Furthermore, disadvantaged children experience higher prevalence of vision problems and are less likely to receive the treatment… they need.”
This will feel familiar to many teachers and educators where children may be seated near the board, a pair of glasses may be broken or left at home. But could a more subtle problem be hidden in plain sight?
We are talking about small numbers of children here. But the impact on individuals means it is an issue we could be more aware of.
What are some ways in which eyesight might affect early reading development?
It seems intuitive to suggest that poor eyesight limits reading ability. Evidence that supports this assumption is still emerging.
Reading is accomplished though decoding: the ability to process words. For children with vision problems like near-sightedness, difficulties seeing text at a distance might prevent correct identification of the written graphemes with errors in grapheme-phoneme correspondence.
One of the difficulties of studying the impact of poor eyesight on reading development is that there are numerous factors at play. For instance, socio-economic factors, such as pupils being from a disadvantaged background, is associated both with lower uptake of glasses provision and with poorer levels of literacy. Though it can be hard to disentangle these issues, an awareness of related health issues is part of the sensitivity to the needs of every child a school considers.
What is ‘Glasses in Classes’ and what can we learn from it?
The aim of the Glasses in Classes (GiC) intervention – developed by the Centre for Applied Education Research, a partnership created by Bradford Opportunity Area to remove health barriers to learning – was to improve the literacy and numeracy skills, as well as the visual acuity (clarity of eyesight), of children in reception (age four and five) by increasing the number who obtain and consistently wear glasses following an eye test, by linking schools, families, opticians and health services in the Bradford Metropolitan area.
Our EEF-funded trial involved 99 schools. The eye test results were shared with schools, staff were trained to support pupils and their families to get glasses and encourage pupils to wear them. Pupils received a second pair of glasses to keep at school. Each participating school had a Vision Coordinator (VC), supporting the relationship between school, families, opticians, and health services.
Children in the GiC schools made no additional months’ progress in the primary outcome of reading outcomes – nor the secondary outcomes, which included visual acuity and mathematical achievement, – compared to children in the control schools who did not receive the programme. Children eligible for free school meals who were offered GiC made the equivalent of one months’ progress in reading compared to FSM-eligible children in control schools, but due to smaller pupil numbers in this group, we have to be aware of statistical uncertainty.
What can we take-away from this report?
We need to be cautious about interpreting too much from this individual trial. It had a moderate security rating due to both attrition and disruption to the delivery caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This included limited access to medical professionals at that time. The intervention was originally designed to last one year but due to COVID-19 related disruption it ran for two years, from December 2019 until June 2021.
No teacher wants their pupils to be straining to read when they could have glasses. Knowing our children, communicating effectively with families and health professionals, and having strategies to support in and outside of school are central.
Teachers reported consistently using a cluster of strategies to support glasses- wearing in school. These included:
The fact that the approach didn’t translate to obvious improvement in eyesight, or academic outcomes, may indicate that there is no glaring challenge with glasses provision in schools in this region. And yet, within the large-scale data there may be important challenges for individual pupils.
There was a related challenge around parental engagement in supporting optician visits. There are opportunities in developing and monitoring effective communication between school and families. The EEF has a full guidance report on this topic.
Having a VC is another role for schools with already so many social, medical and special educational needs to support. There is a need to make this process easier with specialist professional services better aligned to avoid these near hidden issues impacting individual children in our schools and settings.
Read the Glasses for Classes evaluation report.
Find out more about getting involved in EEF trials – here.