Children's Vision
Children's vision care is essential to every child's development. Experts say that over 80 percent of what a child learns in school is presented visually, so making sure your son or daughter has good vision can make a big difference in their academic performance.
Regular eye exams can detect vision problems and corrective action can be taken quickly.
Signs and Symptoms:
- Headaches and fatigue especially after reading.
- Squinting or closing one eye to see better.
- Eyes don't appear to be aligned, crossing or drifting.
Common Eye Problems and Concerns
- Amblyopia (lazy eye) is reduced vision in one eye that is the result of poor focusing caused by uncorrected refractive errors such as myopia, hyperopia or astigmatism. Amblyopia can develop as a result of strabismus when both eyes do not look at the same place at the same time. This misalignment, or drifting, causes the brain to receive two different images. Rather than see double vision the image from the turned eye will be suppressed and over time acuity reduces. Treatment options include glasses, prisms, vision therapy, patching and eye muscle surgery. For best results, treatment should begin before age six.
- Computer Vision Syndrome can cause eye discomfort, fatigue, blurred vision and headaches. Treatment options may include simply increasing the viewing distance to sixteen inches which reduces convergence and accomodation. Eye glasses with non-glare lenses may be prescribed to minimize overfocusing. The time that children use computers and hand held devices should be reduced to twenty minutes with five minute breaks. This promotes flexibility to the visual system and may reduce the progression of myopia.