Education is a very important factor for the development of generations and there are many studies over the years that investigate the deficiencies that children with learning, reading or writing difficulties may have.
Analyses and results show that a large proportion of children who have difficulty reading or writing have some visual impairment:
CAUSES
⦁ near deviation: not being able to focus well in reading, they tend to focus only with one eye because it is easier and this interferes with binocular vision and reading.
⦁ accommodation amplitude: it is difficult for them to see clearly at close distances. Generally, depending on age, there is a near distance range (less than 40cm) that a “normal” person can see clearly. This value is related to age. An older person’s range of clear vision is less than that of a child. That means, a child has a much better visual ability because he or she is able to see clearly at very close distances. If a child has difficulty reading or writing, he or she may have a lower accommodative range.
⦁ near point of vergence: they have difficulty aligning the two eyes symmetrically and focusing on an object at a distance very close to the nose without seeing double. Many children have this binocular deficiency and are not able to force the eye to not see the near object double. At this point, one eye is deviated and then they no longer see double. But this strategy interferes with reading, causing the child to read more slowly than normal and can also make writing more difficult.
Generally all these oculomotor problems should be diagnosed by an optometrist who will be able to assess the deficiency and propose a solution and/or refer to an ophthalmologist.
SYMPTOMS
Typically the difficulty that children have when reading includes:
- Slow reading
- Rubbing their eyes a lot
- Eye movements to try to see well
- Not centering the reading book on the table properly
- Getting too close to the reading book
- Blinking a lot
- Eye fatigue
- Continuous fatigue when trying to read or write
TREATMENT
To define exactly a good diagnosis with the child and to evaluate if the problems he/she has when reading, writing or learning are caused by vision, a complex eye examination must be done with an optometrist and an ophthalmologist.
If there are visual deficiencies that interfere with the child’s learning process, it can be corrected by means of:
- Glasses if there is actually a refractive defect causing the blurred vision.
- Contact lenses is also an option to correct the optical defect, although it is more used in cases of very high refractive defects or cases of amblyopia or lazy eye.
- Vision therapy: a series of visual exercises that help the child to strengthen the visual system, align the eyes correctly, make both eyes work equally after accurately diagnosing the cause of the reading and learning deficit.
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