26 Jan How Eye Disorders Can Affect Children’s Learning
Is your child having a hard time keeping up at school? While there are a number of reasons your child may be having difficulty at school, many issues—from difficulty learning in a classroom setting to performing well in physical activity—can be due to poor eyesight or eye-related issues. Luckily, early diagnosis and awareness can often resolve these issues. and ensure your child can fully participate in school. Continue reading for 4 signs that your child might be having difficulty learning due to eye disorders.
1. Difficulty Seeing The Board
If your child has trouble seeing the front of the classroom from a certain distance, it is possible that they suffer from Myopia, or near-sightedness. Myopia causes light to refract improperly due to improper shape, causing distant objects to appear blurry. This could cause your child to find it difficult to see items written on the board or lessons conducted at the front of the classroom. Myopia is a quite common eye condition, and is correctable with prescription lenses. As the child gets older, they may also opt for contact lenses.
2. Always Tired, Despite Enough Sleep
If your child is still feeling tired at school despite sleeping the recommended number of hours, it could be due to difficulty seeing. Eye fatigue and eye strain could be causing your child to experience headaches, blurry vision, pain around the eyes or feeling exceptionally tired. Dry eyes, difficulty focusing the eyes while reading, or excessive screen time can lead to eye fatigue and tiredness.
Ensure your child is taking adequate breaks throughout the day to rest their eyes, and visit your eye doctor for diagnosis and recommendations. Your child may need to undergo vision therapy, begin using prescription lenses, or use artificial tears to help with eye lubrication.
3. Squinting Or Rubbing Eyes To See
Often, if a child is having difficulty focusing, you may begin to notice them squinting or rubbing their eyes to improve their vision. Difficulty focusing could be due to a number of factors, including strabismus. This condition refers to the misalignment of an individual’s eye, causing it to turn in towards or outward from the nose. While strabismus can be difficult to detect, it can often develop into amblyopia, more commonly known as “lazy eye.” Amblyopia is caused as one eye sees less clearly than the other, and is therefore weakened due to overcompensation by the brain.
These conditions can affect your child’s ability to focus their eyes, affecting their depth perception and making it more difficult to take in information at school. Improper depth perception can not only cause difficulties in the classroom, but also while playing sports such as soccer or basketball. Treatments for strabismus and amblyopia include using eye drops, patching the dominant eye, or corrective lenses. The child may also require vision therapy, allowing them to strengthen vision and focusing skills. To determine whether your child is suffering from strabismus before it develops into amblyopia, it is important to visit the optometrist for regular check-ups.
4. Difficulty Reading
If your child appears to have difficulty reading, it could be due to their eyesight. As discussed above, conditions such as strabismus can affect a child’s ability to focus properly. Focusing issues during close work can also more commonly be due to hyperopia, or farsightedness. Hyperopia, similar to myopia, is caused by an irregular shaped eye preventing the eye from properly focusing light. It can lead to headaches and fatigue after doing close work such as reading.
Although slight hyperopia can sometimes remain untreated, it is best remedied through the use of corrective lenses. If your child is having difficulty reading or completing other school work, undiagnosed hyperopia could be the culprit! Ensure that you are visiting your child’s optometrist regularly to ensure that hyperopia is caught in a timely manner.
The Importance Of A Proper Diagnosis
It is important to catch any eye disorders early, as diagnosing and treating your child’s vision can greatly improve their quality of life. Not only will they be able to perform better in school, they will be able to participate more fully in extracurricular activities, have increased energy levels, and have reduced symptoms, such as headaches. Further, early diagnosis can help prevent eye disorders from worsening, reducing the likelihood of complications later in life.
It can be difficult to identify eye disorders in children, as they may not know how to explain the difficulties they are having. It is important to not only pay attention to your child’s behaviours to determine whether they may be having trouble seeing, but to take them to regularly scheduled eye exams. Bringing your child to visit the optometrist regularly will allow any potential issues to be caught as early as possible, improving your child’s ability to learn and thrive.
If you believe your child may be suffering from an eye disorder, or you simply need to book their next regular check-up, contact Dr D’Orio Eyecare to make an appointment. Visit https://drdorioeyecare.com/book-appointment/ or call us at 416 656 2020 for our Toronto location, or 416 661 5555 for our North York location.
