“
— by Cheryl Maguire
How Healthy Are
Your Child’s Eyes?
You need glasses,” the ophthalmologist
said to me. I
was twelve years old. My
mom was shocked, since I never complained
of unclear vision and no one else
in our family had poor eyesight. The reason
I went to the doctor is that I failed
the school eye screening exam. My vision
became gradually worse so I didn’t
realize it wasn’t normal.
I remember when I first wore
glasses thinking to myself, “Everything
seems so clear and crisp. I can see the
tips of leaves on a tree and easily read
street signs.” I thought it was normal to
see the world a little bit blurry.
Children’s Eye Health and Safety
Month is coming up in August. This
issue is important to me since my vision
has significantly declined from the
time of my initial diagnosis over thirty
years ago. Even though I am nearsighted
(which means I can only see close up
and need glasses for far away), without
my glasses or contact lenses, I wouldn’t
be able to read a word document at normal
font size on a computer screen (it’s
just a white blur with black lines) since
my vision is so poor. I asked my eye
doctor if I am considered legally blind.
It turns out I’m not, since my vision can
still be corrected with glasses.
According to the website LetsGo-
See.net, one in four children has a vision
problem. The Centers for Disease
22 WNY Family July 2020
Control states that Amblyopia, or lazy
eye, is the most common cause of vision
loss in children, which can be treated if
caught early between the ages of 3 to 5
years old. PreventBlindness.org found
the most common vision disorders in
children are myopia (nearsightedness;
trouble seeing far away), hyperopia (farsightedness;
trouble seeing close up),
and astigmatism (blurry vision at all distances).
Visual acuity, or lack thereof, affects
a child in many ways. The Urban
Child Institute states that correcting poor
vision can foster a child’s cognitive and
social development, while the American
Optometric Association estimates 80%
of a child’s learning happens through
observation. In the classroom, most of
the teaching is done by the display of
information. Children also learn social
skills from seeing facial expressions and
body language.
Similar to my experience, children
may be unaware of the fact their vision
is not normal, since they have never experienced
anything else. This may lead
to feeling frustrated about being unable
to see the words in a book or on the
board in the classroom, causing a child
to act out. According to the American
Optometric Association, “Some children
with learning difficulties exhibit specific
behaviors of hyperactivity and distractibility.
These children are often labeled
as having Attention Deficit Hyperactivity
Disorder (ADHD). However, undetected
and untreated vision problems
can elicit some of the very same signs
and symptoms commonly attributed to
ADHD. Due to these similarities, some
children may be mislabeled as having
ADHD when, in fact, they have an undetected
vision problem.”
The following are signs that may
indicate your child could have a vision
problem:
1) Head Tilt: If your child has
a problem with their ocular muscles or
nerves they will attempt to compensate
by tilting their head.
2) Sitting Too Close To The
TV: If your child is nearsighted, they
will attempt to compensate for this by
moving closer to the TV or other reading
materials.
3) Avoidance of Reading: If
your child has poor visual skills and eye
teaming skills, they will compensate for
this by avoiding reading. Reading uses
many complex eye movements and poor
visual skills may cause your child to become
frustrated easily.
4) Frequent Headaches:
You child may have headaches because
he/she is over strained using all of their
energy to align, focus, and use their eyes.
5) Laterality Problem: If
your child has poor directional skills and
often confuses left and right it could be
due to poor vision. Proper oculocentric
location is dependent on vision and laterality
depends, in part, upon oculocentric
location.
6) Finger Pointing: If your
child has poor vision tracking skills they
may use their finger to compensate for
their poor tracking ability.
7) Can’t Copy From The
Board: Your child may have difficulty
with accommodation, the ability to
change focus between far and near. This
is essential for success in school.
8) Squinting: Your child may
squint because this narrows a bundle of
light entering the eye which allows for
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