Reading glasses for babies: feasibility study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Can provision of near vision glasses as an early intervention improve visual and developmental outcomes in children with perinatal brain insult? A feasibility study.
IRAS ID
265584
Contact name
Richard Bowman
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Great Ormond Street Hospital
ISRCTN Number
ISRCTN14646770
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
The leading cause of sight impairment in children in the UK is cerebral visual impairment (CVI), commonly caused by brain injury around the time of birth (probably 3 to 4% of children aged between 4 and 6 years affected to varying degrees). Babies use vision to learn to walk, talk, think and communicate so if we can improve vision early we may be able to help these babies’ general development.
We aim to offer glasses to these small babies to put their near world into focus, perhaps for the first time.
Previous research has shown improved vision and focusing ability with near vision glasses in older children with CVI, but it has not been tried in babies. Close up is where babies look at their hands and toys and parents faces and this is crucial for development. Many children with CVI lack the ability to focus for near. Near vision glasses will bring this world into focus and also make everything bigger at this vital stage of their development.
Therefore we plan a trial of giving these near vision glasses to young (2-4 months) babies whom we know to be at risk of CVI (extreme prematurity or brain injury around time of birth). We will look to see if, by doing this, we can improve children’s vision when we measure it 3 and 6 months later and if we can also help other areas of development.
We have consulted parents from the CVI society of the UK and parents from the neonatal clinics at UCLH, who have been supportive of the research and say they would be willing to get glasses for their babies at a young age if there is any chance of improving long term vision.REC name
South Central - Oxford C Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/SC/0004
Date of REC Opinion
14 Feb 2020
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion