Is Your Child’s Vision Keeping Them Back in School?

Vision problems in children are harder to spot than you think. If you begin to notice a decline in school or squinting and holding screens too close to their face, they may have a vision problem.

Falling behind in school isn’t always a knowledge or academic issue – sometimes it’s simply a vision problem. At Ophthalmology Associates of Bay Ridge, our team of four eye specialists offers general eye exams, contact lenses, and LASIK vision correction for kids and adults.

Vision issues that impact school

Struggling in school isn’t always about a learning problem or disinterest – sometimes it’s due to a vision problem. A child who’s struggling in school, especially with reading or homework, could be having trouble seeing.

Various conditions that affect a child’s vision include:

Refractory issues

Nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism cause blurry vision in kids and adults. If you find your child squinting or holding books too close, they could have a refractive issue.

Amblyopia

Amblyopia, also known as lazy eye, causes decreased vision in one eye. It happens due to issues with eye and brain communication.

Strabismus

Stabismus, or crossed eyes, is a condition that happens when the eyes are misaligned. The result is poor depth perception and decreased coordination.

Convergence insufficiency

Convergence insufficiency happens when your child can’t focus on close objects. The result is blurry or double vision that often leads to school difficulty.

Signs of a vision problem

If your child seems to be struggling in school, the first and easiest thing to evaluate is their vision. Although you can’t do an eye exam at home, you can look out for the symptoms of vision issues, which include:

• Frequent headaches
• Eye strain
• Squinting to see
• Tilting the head to see
• Poor attention during reading
• Avoiding homework and reading
• Skipping lines when reading
• Trouble copying the whiteboard

Any of these symptoms could signal a vision disturbance that needs addressing. An eye exam is the next step to determining what vision issue your child has and what to do about it.

What happens next?

The first step in evaluating your child’s vision is to make an appointment with our team. We discuss the symptoms you’ve noticed and perform an eye exam to find out what’s causing your child’s discomfort.

Next, we discuss our findings and suggest a treatment plan that best suits your child’s needs. It could be glasses, contact lenses, or other forms of myopia control. 

We customize the treatment and offer various options in glasses and contacts to suit your child. LASIK may be an option, but their vision has to be stable.

Regular eye exams are the best way to keep track of your child’s vision. If you notice they get better at school but then have trouble again, their vision may be changing and require a prescription adjustment.

To get treatment for your child’s vision, request an appointment at our Brooklyn, New York, office for an eye exam by contacting us today.