If you have school-aged children, you may already be preparing for the busy back-to-school season, even though it is mid-July. School supplies are important, but good vision is also key to academic performance.
Did you know up to 80% of learning is visual? If your child has vision problems, they may not be able to tell you about them and could end up feeling frustrated and unsuccessful in school as a result. Even if your child has passed a vision screening at their pediatrician’s office, these vision screenings usually measure what they can see 20 feet away and not up close while reading.
Symptoms of Vision Problems in Children
If your child has a vision problem, they may experience some of the following symptoms or experience some of these behaviors.
- Blurry vision
- Skipping over words or losing their place while reading
- Difficulty remembering what was read
- Short attention span and difficulty staying on task
- Headaches
- Poor eye-hand coordination
- Frequently rubbing their eyes
- Sitting too close to the television
- Closing one eye while watching television or reading
- Straining or squinting to see
Vision Skills Needed for School
Children need to have good visual skills for school, and these visual skills involve more than the ability to see 20/20. Effective visual skills also include being able to understand and respond to what is seen. Learn more about why back-to-school eye exams are crucial.
Here are some of the vision skills children need to perform at their very best in school.
- Eye focusing: The ability to maintain good vision as the distance between objects changes, such as quickly looking up from a desk to the blackboard in a classroom.
- Eye tracking: the ability to read lines of text in a book or follow a moving object.
- Eye-hand coordination: the ability to use visual cues to direct the hands appropriately to perform actions such as catching a ball.
- Visual acuity: the ability to see clearly in the distance and up close.
- Visual perception: the ability to perceive letters and words and remember what was read.
Back-to-School Eye Exam
As children grow, vision can change frequently, and a vision screening is no substitute for the comprehensive eye health and vision exam the doctors at Accent Vision Care provide during a pediatric eye exam. Set your child up for success this school year by ensuring that they have their best vision! Schedule a back-to-school eye exam with us today.
