VISION: The unsung hero of your child’s education
BY DR NICHOLAS ALTUNEG
The end of summer signals the return to school, and parents are diligently checking off lists: uniforms, stationery, and packed lunches. Yet, amidst the hustle and bustle, there’s one crucial item that often goes unnoticed — your child’s eyes and vision. School kids need an eye test at the beginning of every year. Here’s why ensuring your child’s vision is essential for their academic journey. The vital role of vision in learning Vision significantly influences your child’s ability to learn. Approximately 80 to 85% of the information they absorb is received through their eyes.
assuming everyone sees the world in the same way that they do. Unfortunately, more than 411,000 children in Australia have difficulty with clarity of vision, with near or far–sightedness being the most common. Many more children with 20/20 vision suffer from visually related learning difficulties due to binocular vision anomalies or visual information processing disorders. Traditional school or preschool screening tests often miss over 90% of vision problems. Standard child eye exams typically focus on how clearly a child can see, focusing on improving clarity of vision and checking for eye disease. These exams often fail to assess the complexities of vision if they don’t consider how the eyes function or how the brain interprets visual information.
Impaired vision can become a potential barrier to their learning and, if left undetected, can affect their academic performance and confidence in the classroom.
The silent challenge Imagine this: your child is sitting in a classroom, trying their best to focus on the teacher’s instructions. However, they’re quietly struggling because they are mixing up letters, the words are moving on the page, or they keep losing their place when they read. Instead of complaining, they adapt, squinting or straining their eyes, believing this is how everyone experiences the world.
Overlooking vision problems Many children adapt to vision problems,
As parents and educators, it’s not uncommon for us to misinterpret these
Surprisingly, 1 in 4 children of all ages have a vision problem significant enough to affect their performance in school.
24
O N T H E C OA S T – FAM ILIES
silent struggles. We might think the child is being difficult, inattentive, or simply disinterested in learning. The truth is that these behaviours often stem from an undiagnosed vision problem, despite the child’s best efforts to cope with it. Could my child have dyslexia? Suppose your child is under performing academically relative to their ability. In that case, they either have dyslexia, a visually–related learning problem or a combination of both. Visually–related learning problems are often mistaken for dyslexia, as many symptoms appear similar. Dyslexia is a difficult label because many potential causes could be associated, and a lot of investigations need to be made. A visually–related learning problem is easily diagnosed and treated by a Behavioural Optometrist. It could save time, energy and money exploring areas that may not need to be investigated. What signs will I see? Most children don’t report visual problems because they assume that everybody else sees or feels the same way that they do. If the board in the classroom is blurry, if the words move on the page, or if they get sore eyes or headaches when they read, they assume this occurs for everyone else in the same
