Why children need an eye-exam before start of school
It is a fact that a vision problem can make our life difficult and dysfunctional. At the same time, for children, this can affect their later life, since it can disrupt their performance in school. According to experts, the relationship between vision and learning is extremely interconnected and powerful. Having in mind that over of 80% of school learning/information is presented to students visually, it can be said that a vision problem can greatly affect our child's understanding and perception.
Eye disorders in children are not rare but extremely common, if you consider the statistics. More than one in four children of school age (approximately 6 to 12 years old) and 5-10% of preschool age children (approximately 5 to 6 years old) suffer from vision problems. What is more, more than one in five children have undiagnosed eye problems, as their vision has never been checked.
Taking into account the above statistics, it is extremely important to have our child’s a vision check every year before the start of the new school year, even if the child has not complained that he does not see well. In this way, we can be sure that the child will not have any obstacle in his learning related to vision. After all, most vision problems in children can be treated, especially if diagnosed early.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 80% of vision disorders can be prevented or treated.
These disorders can be divided into three categories:
Vision Disorders
Refractive Disorders
These are disorders that do not allow light to focus properly on the back of the eye, i.e. the retina. This also means blurring of vision and the image we perceive. Parents can understand their child might have a refractive disorder if he is going too close to the book to be able to read but also not perceiving various things that are in the distance, use of only one eye (the child looks from the side or to close one eye when he wants to see something) etc.
Refractive disorders include myopia, hypermetropia, astigmatism and presbyopia (only developed in older ages).
Functional vision disorders
These are conditions that affect the ability of the eyes to more fully perceive the depth and dimensions of an object in space. This results in blurred or double vision (diplopia), eye strain, headaches, and can even cause children to see letters upside down or confuse similar words.
Disorders of visual perception
Our brain has the ability to accurately and quickly process and analyze the information presented to it visually. Visual perception is a skill of this function, which is the brain's ability to track, understand and process various visual information. It is estimated that around 35-40% of people with learning disabilities show some kind of visual disorder. Classic examples of a visual perception disorder are color blindness or a child having difficulty recognizing words they have seen before. Difficulties in visual perception can lead to learning disabilities, dyslexia or low academic performance.
Children with difficulties in visual perception may experience headaches during reading, hypersensitivity to bright lighting, difficulty in following an entire page, words or letters break in two and appear as doubles, inability to focus on an object, etc.
How will I know that my child does not seeing well?
Unfortunately, in most cases, children will never complain that they cannot see well. Thus, all the responsibility falls on us parents, who should be the ones to take our children for a preventive check-up to specialists such as an optician or ophthalmologist, if the problem is more complicated. At the same time, we should be alert for various suspicious symptoms or signs that show that our child may have a vision problem.
See the world through OJO and get the kids ready for school!
The experienced team of OJO Opticians as well as its experienced staff are at your disposal for a free vision check for both you and your children (for ages over 8), offering quality and stylish solutions that will make them they are ready and… cool for school and you ready to go back to the office after your summer vacation!