Poor vision will make the experience of going to school extremely difficult for students because they will have trouble understanding the material being presented in classrooms, which will affect their education and learning abilities.
Many students do not want to admit that they are experiencing trouble with their vision and mask their problems behind behavioural or learning disabilities, which is why parents and teachers need to pay close attention to any signs of issues with the child’s vision. A big percentage of the learning process is visual and if that is compromised, it will affect their learning abilities tremendously and school will become a place of horror instead of joy. If you see that your child is having difficulty concentrating, can’t seem to focus or has a short attention span, the problem may be linked to their vision as these symptoms are not only behavioural but vision-related as well. Blurry vision will lead to headaches and eyestrain and will make going to school every day something they’ll come to dread. This is because poor vision will affect kids emotionally and when they fell behind or unable to understand content as well as their friends, they will not only act out but will associate school with negative feelings.
When a child struggles to see the board clearly or cannot distinguish between different colours, they will feel inferior to their peers, which can affect their behaviour. Squinting is another side effect of poor vision and no matter how severe the condition is, it will affect their school experience as they’ll be faced with a number of difficulties, including communicating with their peers, learning and being able to enjoy and participate in social and extracurricular activities.
Most schools provide in-school vision screening tests, although this will only be able to see the basics and the results are not always accurate. Kids with blurry or double vision may pass the test even though they are suffering from their vision and struggle to read, write and focus in class. For these reasons, it is very important that your child sees an optometrist who can conduct a thorough screening and assess their vision. This is the only way you will get accurate results, after which you can apply the correct solution to help your child’s vision. Eye exams need to be done at specific stages because kids develop quickly at different ages, so in order to monitor their sight, regular eye exams will have to be scheduled.
Orangeville Optometric Centre can help with all of your family’s eye care needs. They provide eye tests, eyeglass frames, contact lenses and will even discuss the possibility of laser eye surgery if that is something you need. For an optometrist, you can trust, contact Orangeville Optometric Centre today to book an appointment.