Identifying Vision Impairment in Children

One of the reasons as to why your school-going child is not getting good grades could be vision impairment. Identifying vision problems such as squints, or corneal problem may not be easy, especially if you are not an eye specialist. You may also lack the information on how to detect vision loss at the early stages of your child’s development, or your child may not be able to tell whether they have a problem or not. However, at the Guys And St. Thomas Private Healthcare, an ophthalmologist may be able to detect and correct treatable forms of eye impairment at its early stages.

Apart from your child’s IQ, vision plays a significant role in how he performs both at school, play and home. This is because the variety of tasks handled by children such as using a computer, reading, doing house chores and writing requires eye focus. If their eye focus is affected, then the level of correctness with which they are required to accomplish these tasks will be reduced.

As children go older, the text size in books is made smaller to fit all the information required to be absorbed in that stage. If your child never had problems identifying different colours, shapes and pictures when they were toddlers, and they start showing signs of eye defects at a later age it means they may be suffering from a corneal problem.

Other than the print size, which increases the reading time and affects the reading speed, school workload demands that your child’s vision is performing at it’s optimum. So, before you start worrying that your child may be academically challenged, check first with a pediatric ophthalmologist to discover any eye problems.

Read below for the signs of vision defects and visual skills needed for proper learning.

What Signs Should You Look Out for in Vision Impairment?

Some of the vision problem signs you can observe are frequent headaches, fatigue and poor memory. Poor memory may get triggered by a lack of visual retention or visual perception.

Other signs include lack of attention, eye rubbing, disinterest in reading, double vision, and shutting one eye to gain better clarity.

What Visual Skills Are Needed for School Excellence?

Apart from good vision, children also need vision skills to help them perform exemplary at school both in class and on the field. They require the ability to see clearly objects at a distance such as a chalkboard and also close ones like book. This is known as visual acuity.

They also need good eye focus to help in maintaining visual clarity whenever they shift their gaze from one object to another. Eye focus is also important when you are required to stare at a particular thing or activity, such as reading for a long time.

Another visual skill that is essential is visual perception. This is the ability to decipher what message printed images are portraying. The message can either be translated into words or letters.

Additionally, children use eye tracking to help maintain the eyes gaze on a mobile object such as a ball that has been hit.

Other visual skills required for proper learning include eye teaming, eye-hand coordination comprehension and retention.

If your child shows a deficiency in any of the above skills, they may not be able to give their best, and it’s advisable to have them checked.