Healthy vision is critical for your son or daughter’s academic success. Vision issues can affect your child’s classroom performance. Here are a few signs that your son or daughter’s academic problems may be vision-related.
3 Academic Issues That Could Be Vision Related
It’s important to be on the lookout for academic issues that could mean your son or daughter is experiencing vision problems. Below are 3 major academic problems that could point to a vision issue:
Squinting: Children squint in an attempt to clear blurry vision. This behavior is a symptom of either nearsightedness or farsightedness, which could lead to headaches and double vision. If you see your child squinting, it could be a sign of a refractive error.
Reading Difficulty: If your child is covering one eye to read or holding the book either too close or too far away, a sign that your child has a refractive error or might even have a more serious condition.
Signs of ADD or ADHD: Every year, children with vision problems are misdiagnosed with ADHD or ADD. This is because children with vision problems often show the same symptoms. Ruling out vision problems helps prevent a misdiagnosis of ADD or ADHD. It could also prevent your child from being prescribed unnecessary medication.
If your child is repeatedly and excessive showing one or more of these signs, they might require corrective vision. With an eye exam, your optometrist can check for:
Depth perception issues
Farsightedness, nearsightedness, astigmatism
Strabismus (crossed eyes), or amblyopia (lazy eyes)
Visual clarity, sharpness, and visual acuity
Learning-Related Vision Problems
Less obvious vision problems related to the way the eyes function and how the brain processes visual information also can limit your child's ability to learn. These are called learning-related vision problems - different than refractive errors, but not technically a learning disability.
So what are the different types of learning-related vision problems? These can include:
Functional Vision Problem: Functional vision refers to the specific functions of the eye, such as fine eye movements (important for reading). Deficits of functional visual skills can cause blurred vision, double vision, and eye strain, all of which can impact learning.
Higher-Order Aberrations: Higher-order aberrations (HOAs) are more subtle and complex refractive errors than nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism. They are generally associated with double vision, blurriness, ghosts, halos, starbursts, loss of contrast and poor night vision.
Perceptual Vision Problems: Visual perception includes understanding what you see, identifying it, judging its importance, and relating it to previously stored information in the brain. For example, recognizing words that you have seen previously, and using the eyes and brain to form a mental picture of the words you see.
Learning-related vision problems can affect visual input, visual processing, and integration. To determine if your child is experiencing a learning-related vision problem, see an eye doctor for a comprehensive evaluation.
Schedule Your Child’s Appointment Today!
If your child is struggling academically while exhibiting these warning signs, make an appointment with your local eye doctor. An optometrist can determine if a vision problem is the root of the issue.
Eden Prairie Eye Care offers state of the art technology to quickly and accurately diagnose your child’s vision issues. To make an appointment, contact our offices at (952) 944-2792 or via our online platform. Together, we can safeguard your child’s eye health and ensure their future success!
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