By Steve Roberts 

Contact lenses for children  worn only while sleeping could play an important role in helping children achieve higher levels of academic performance. Too often, parents do not recognise the importance of getting their child's eyesight checked at an early age and at least annually thereafter - usually in the mistaken belief that the child will let them know if he or she has problems. But young children are often unaware that their vision is in need of corrective treatment and will not necessarily understand that an inability to see clearly in the classroom needs to be addressed. However, with the incidence of myopia - more commonly known as short-sightedness - increasing rapidly, up to one-third of young children may be unable to see distant objects like the classroom blackboard clearly.

Opticians emphasise that the earlier vision problems like myopia are detected, the less time will pass before a child falls behind in school. Given that as much as 80 percent of what children learn in school is presented to them visually, good vision is essential for them to fulfil their academic potential. Indeed, a recent Chinese study found that children with defective vision who were then provided with a means of correcting their eyesight increased their annual learning performance by as much as 50%. Given this study outcome, contact lenses for children  worn only overnight while sleeping yet which, after removal each morning, provide perfect natural vision all day long, could be the solution.

This is particularly the case given that the same study identified that a significant number of children were reluctant to wear glasses due to concerns over their appearance and impact on their sports activities. One-third of girls and one-quarter of boys would not wear glasses. With the new overnight corrective contact lenses for children  which work on the basis of the long-established optical science of orthokeratology - or ortho-k as it is often referred to - short-sightedness is corrected while the child sleeps by gently flattening the eye using the mild pressure of closed eyelids. This effect lasts for over 24 hours and, more importantly as recent research shows, it can stop the child's eyesight deteriorating any further.