Good vision in childhood is important for your child’s wellness, growth, and learning. In fact, over half of learning difficulties in youth relate to untreated vision problems. Below, we look at how parents can help their kids succeed in socialization and education through good eye health. This help starts with ensuring your child has an eye exam every one to two years for diagnosis and treatment of early vision problems.
 

Why are childhood vision problems often undiagnosed?

Kids are often not aware of their vision problems. When they cannot see the chalkboard in class or struggle to see other things at a distance, they typically try to adapt by squinting their eyes. Most assume that what they see and cannot see is the same as for others around them. They simply do not know how to gauge their own good vision in childhood.

As children continue to struggle to keep up with their class because of poor vision or other eye problems, their behavior changes. They become easily distracted. They also fidget more. While they notice that they do not learn as easily as kids around them, they cannot understand why. When they are scolded for poor performance, they cannot connect their shortfalls to specific problems or needs.
 

School Nurses Can Miss Vision Problems

The school vision acuity test is something most kids go through. It certainly helps promote good vision in childhood and can find some problems. But this “big E chart” test cannot screen for all vision concerns. Issues the school nurse cannot detect include:
 

Astigmatism
Vision screenings at school do not usually uncover signs of refractive errors causing blurry vision. If astigmatism is not diagnosed early it can lead to amblyopia, also called a “lazy eye.” This condition often relates to poor eyesight in one eye because of astigmatism. It can also create a difference in the two eyes’ refractive errors or crossed eyes. Without diagnosis and treatment, your child risks permanent vision loss.
 

Convergence Insufficiency
Convergence insufficiency is a condition wherein the eyes move outward when your child tries to focus on nearby objects. This vision problem makes reading difficult and can affect how your child performs other close tasks.
 

Strabismus
This condition causes the eyes to misalign. Instead of both eyes directing forward as they should for good vision in childhood, they may turn outward, downward, inward or upward. Children with this condition may need to wear an eye patch for a period of time. It is also treated through special glasses or eye surgery.
 

Important Eye Health Signs for Good Vision in Childhood

Parents can help enable earlier diagnosis of eye health problems by looking for signs or symptoms. Some of these include one eye moving independently of the other, in the wrong direction. Frequent squinting is another sign of vision problems. If you notice these signs or any of those below, take your child to the eye doctor for a comprehensive eye exam. Of course, you should have your child go in for an annual or biennial eye exam even without such problems, to ensure they maintain good vision in childhood.

Signs of children’s vision problems include:

• Frequent headaches

• Frequent blinking and eye rubbing

• Poor attention span, particularly at school or when doing close work

• Avoidance of reading or problems with reading

• Frequently covering one eye

• Squinting

• Commonly tilting head to the side

• Reading with materials very close to their face

• Problems with reading comprehension

• Losing their place frequently while reading
   

Fostering Good Vision in Childhood

Did you know that all babies must learn how to see? They do this very early in life, long before walking or talking, of course. But the first months of their lives are spent developing visual skills for using their eyes and interpreting what they see. Parents can help foster good vision in childhood, starting during the first days, weeks and months of life. During these early days, engage in age-appropriate play with toys and games.

For your infant, engage in play with objects about eight to 15 inches from their face. They still cannot focus beyond this point in their first months and otherwise only see blurred shapes, shadows and light. Over the next months, your baby starts seeing more clearly. You can help them train their eyes for good vision in childhood through engaging play that includes:

• Lots of colorful objects like toys they can hold and a mobile over their crib

• Slow movement of objects in front of their eyes to help them track movement

• Peek-a-boo and other visual games in their field of view
   

From Six Months to One Year

At your baby’s sixth month, you should start noticing improving eye-hand coordination. Help them develop these skills by giving them colorful toys to hold and enjoy. Crawling also helps them improve their coordination. When your baby bumps their head when first learning to crawl, this is a part of the process. They are learning that their heads extend farther than their eyesight.

During this period of time, your baby will grow tired of some games from earlier in their life. They no longer find peek-a-boo so engaging because they know objects do not disappear when out of view. If your child seems bored of peek-a-boo, try hide-and-seek with toys hidden behind or under nearby objects to keep challenging them.
 

Toddler Months

From their first birthday and through the toddler months, your child continues improving their visual skills for good vision in childhood. In fact, learning to walk helps them develop even more coordination. During this time, engage in ball play. At about age two, provide paper and crayons to help them start developing their creativity. Also provide colorful wood blocks or big interlocking bricks.
 

Eye Exams Are Critical for Children through All Stages of Development

Comprehensive eye exams enable your child’s eye doctor to track their development and find early signs of vision or eye health problems. If your child does not have good vision in childhood, diagnosis is the key to successful treatment. As you can see in the information above, good vision and catching eye health problems early are vital for your child’s healthy development.

Call Clarity Vision in North Carolina or Virginia to schedule your child’s eye exam today. Their first eye exam should take place at age six months to set them on the right path for good vision in childhood. From there, they should see the eye doctor at age three, then approximately every two years. Clarity Vision has offices in Apex, Smithfield, Williamston, Clayton and Holly Springs, North Carolina. We also have an office in Suffolk, Virginia.