Vision-related learning problems: Does your child have them?

Vision and learning go hand in hand. While it’s not necessarily true that good vision means better learning but if vision goes down, learning goes down as well.

Vision-related learning difficulties are different from learning disabilities. Where a disability indicates a glitch in the processing of certain visual information, when it’s related to vision, the images sent to the brain are not clear and thus the brain isn’t able to interpret that information.

If your child’s vision is also low, then they may be facing some learning problems at school. Not being able to see the board is only one of the vision-related problems that affect learning in kids. This is why it’s important to take your kids for regular eye exams and get prescription glasses for them if the need arises.

Components of healthy vision

There are so many factors that make up good or healthy vision. The important ones are the following.

Visual acuity

Visual acuity measures the ability of the eyes to distinguish between different objects at a given distance. Thus, your child’s vision needs to be crisp at every distance. Where near vision will help them read books and papers, a good distance vision will let them see the classroom board clearly.

Eye focus

Your child should be able to focus as well as shift focus across different distances.

But, focusing could be a problem when you’re looking at a digital screen as it displays text using pixels. These are generally harder to focus on than printed books and reading material. Thus, your child might need computer glasses to focus easily on the distance of the screen.

Eye alignment

Your child’s eyes need to be well-coordinated and must move together when reading text on a book or board. However, in some children, the eyes could be misaligned which may be the doing of amblyopia also known as lazy eyes.

This problem leads to poor depth perception and even blurred or double vision. Amblyopia is the leading cause of low vision in kids. Thus, get regular eye exams for your kids to make sure that amblyopia is not the cause of vision-related learning problems in your child.

You can get a free eye test from us as well. Our opticians have years of experience in examining children’s eyes and our optometry tools are safe for kids.

Colour vision

Colour vision refers to the ability of your eyes to identify and distinguish between different colours. This aspect of vision comes in handy when making map charts or during chemistry lessons.

Colour blindness occurs in boys more than it occurs in girls. This could be acquired or inherited from your parents.

Symptoms of vision-related learning problems

Symptoms of vision-related learning problems include:

• Eye squirting
• Rubbing one or both eyes
• Eye strain and headaches
• Crossed eyes
• Blurred or double vision
• Avoiding reading or doing close-up work
• Holding reading material close to the face to sitting close to the TV
• Losing track of words when reading
• Closing or covering one eye while reading
• Poor reading speed
• Excessive blinking
• Poor hand-eye coordination
• Difficulty identifying and remebering shapes

These are some of the symptoms that indicate that your child has vision-related learning problems. If your child shows any of these problems, then you must take them for an eye test.

Don’t wait for them to get older to take them to these tests. Any vision problem in children becomes even harder to fix after eight.

Leaning Difficulty vs Learning Disability

Learning disabilities such as dyslexia and amblyopia are different from learning difficulties that arise from vision problems. Learning disabilities have nothing to do with your vision. Instead, they reflect some error in the processing of information by your brain.

However, vision-related learning problems are those that you experience solely because of your vision.

Most learning problems due to vision troubles are the result of misaligned eyes or blurry vision. Once you correct these problems with prescription glasses, you won’t experience learning difficulties any more.

If you’re looking to fix your child’s vision so they perform well at school, you can get a free eye test for them with us. We also recommend eyeglasses for children based on their needs and activities at school.

However, if your child is facing learning problems and have no error in their vision, then you must talk to their teachers to find out where the problem is.