Did you know that over 80% of a child’s learning comes from what they see and process through their visual system?
And yet 1 in 3 children 0-17 years of age have never had an eye examination with an optometrist.
Vision problems aren’t just about “seeing”. There are different reasons why your child isn’t processing things properly.
- Anatomy – Things such as being near of far-sighted can cause blurry vision
- Focus – The lens needs to be working properly in order to make images clear
- Vergence System – The two eyes must work together to align and create one single image
- Eye movements – Are important to be able to track and follow objects and scan fields.
Kids can’t always express if they are having trouble seeing something. After all, what they see is specific to them so how would they know any different? That’s why it is extremely important for both parents and teachers to see the signs when a child is suffering from vision problems.
Vision problems can impact across all areas of learning from their ability to write, to their ability to read. You might notice your child needing to track text with their fingers as they read or you may find they read at a slower pace or have fluency issues where they are unable to move from one word to the next. There may be repetitions, extra insertions, omissions or substitutions. This can result in “behaviours” where the child may seem disinterested in learning or disengaged and can get restless because they are deemed “lazy” which is simply not true.
Some other common complaints are:
- Headaches
- Discomfort in eyes
- Nausea
- Blur or double vision
- Words that “swim” or move when trying to read
- Squinting
Other signs that you might pick up are:
- Eyes turn in/out
- Red eyes/eyelids
- Watery eyes
- Encrusted eyelids
- Frequent styes
- Head turns when reading (instead of head staying still and eyes tracking)
- Loses place on page
- Shortened attention span
- Misses or repeats words/letters/digits
- Writes uphill/downhill or crooked
- Misaligns digits
- Head tilt/odd posture
- Left and right confusion
- Letter/word reversal
- Poor word recognition
- Word confusion
- Whispers whilst reading
So that’s why it’s very important that your child has an eye test regularly. At Eyes & Vision, we are uniquely equipped to assess children of any age. Our comprehensive and inclusive testing includes a wide range of subjective and objective tests tailored to your child. Our uniquely trained staff provide testing, even for non-verbal children and we are accredited for MiSight, MiYOSMART and are part of the Autism Friendly Charter.
You can even purchase a book written by our incredible Principal Optometrist Dr Nai, specifically written for children to help identify issues with their vision. You can purchase “Can you see what I see?” from any of our practices (limited stock) or through our website here: https://eyesandvision.com.au/shop/educational/can-you-see-what-i-see/.
