Our Children Clinic
Our facilities are very child friendly. Our state of the art computerized exam charts can display pictures rather than letters and cartoon movies can be shown for the child to watch while the doctor examines his/her eyes. Children find it a fun experience while also allowing for a more thorough exam by the doctor.
Please make us aware of any learning difficulty your child is having so we can ascertain if he or she has vision, eye focusing, tracking, or eye coordination problems that are contributing. If so we will find the best remedy so that he or she can progress at school.
We see infants as well as children. We recommend all children have their first eye exam before the age of 3.
Vision Skills Needed For School Success
A child needs many abilities to succeed in school. Good vision is a key. It has been estimated that as much as 80% of the learning a child does occurs through his or her eyes. Reading, writing, chalkboard work, and using computers are among the visual tasks students perform daily. A child's eyes are constantly in use in the classroom and at play. When his or her vision is not functioning properly, education and participation in sports can suffer.
As children progress in school, they face increasing demands on their visual abilities.
The school years are a very important time in every child's life. All parents want to see their children do well in school and most parents do all they can to provide them with the best educational opportunities. But too often one important learning tool may be overlooked - a child's vision.
As children progress in school, they face increasing demands on their visual abilities. The size of print in schoolbooks becomes smaller and the amount of time spent reading and studying increases significantly. Increased class work and homework place significant demands on the child's eyes. Unfortunately, the visual abilities of some students aren't performing up to the task.
When certain visual skills have not developed, or are poorly developed, learning is difficult and stressful, and children will typically:
- Avoid reading and other near visual work as much as possible.
- Attempt to do the work anyway, but with a lowered level of comprehension or efficiency.
- Experience discomfort, fatigue and a short attention span.
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.
Because vision may change frequently during the school years, regular eye and vision care is important. The most common vision problem is nearsightedness or myopia. However, some children have other forms of refractive error like farsightedness and astigmatism. In addition, the existence of eye focusing, eye tracking and eye coordination problems may affect school and sports performance.
Eyeglasses or contact lenses may provide the needed correction for many vision problems. However, a program of vision therapy may also be needed to help develop or enhance vision skills.
The Key Vision Skills For Academic Success
There are many visual skills beyond seeing clearly that team together to support academic success.
Vision is more than just the ability to see clearly, or having 20/20 eyesight. It is also the ability to understand and respond to what is seen. Basic visual skills include the ability to focus the eyes, use both eyes together as a team, and move them effectively. Other visual perceptual skills include:
- recognition (the ability to tell the difference between letters like "b" and "d"),
- comprehension (to "picture" in our mind what is happening in a story we are reading), and
- retention (to be able to remember and recall details of what we read). Every child needs to have the following vision skills for effective reading and learning:
- Visual acuity — the ability to see clearly in the distance for viewing the chalkboard, at an intermediate distance for the computer, and up close for reading a book.
- Eye Focusing — the ability to quickly and accurately maintain clear vision as the distance from objects change, such as when looking from the chalkboard to a paper on the desk and back. Eye focusing allows the child to easily maintain clear vision over time like when reading a book or writing a report.
- Eye tracking — the ability to keep the eyes on target when looking from one object to another, moving the eyes along a printed page, or following a moving object like a thrown ball.
- Eye teaming — the ability to coordinate and use both eyes together when moving the eyes along a printed page, and to be able to judge distances and see depth for class work and sports.
- Eye-hand coordination — the ability to use visual information to monitor and direct the hands when drawing a picture or trying to hit a ball.
- Visual perception — the ability to organize images on a printed page into letters, words and ideas and to understand and remember what is read.
If any of these visual skills are lacking or not functioning properly, a child will have to work harder. This can lead to headaches, fatigue and other eyestrain problems. Parents and teachers need to be alert for symptoms that may indicate a child has a vision problem
Signs of Eye and Vision Problems
A child may not tell you that he or she has a vision problem because they may think the way they see is the way everyone sees.
Signs that may indicate a child has vision problem include:
- Frequent eye rubbing or blinking
- Short attention span
- Avoiding reading and other close activities
- Frequent headaches
- Covering one eye
- Tilting the head to one side
- Holding reading materials close to the face
- An eye turning in or out
- Seeing double
- Losing place when reading
- Difficulty remembering what he or she read
