Learning and eyesight go hand-in-hand for children. Studies show that around 80 to 90 percent of their schooling happens visually. Thus, children need good sight to reach their optimal academic potential. 
 

Most children who have difficulty with their schoolwork have problems with their eyesight. Parents may not be aware of this, so they need a better understanding of it. Here are some facts that can help you understand more.

What Are Learning-related Vision Issues?

Start by understanding that these are different from learning disabilities. However, it is understandable why people confuse the two. It is primarily because learning-related vision issues are less discernible and conspicuous. 

Learning disabilities have to do with disorders in the psychological processes. They cause difficulty understanding written or spoken language. However, learning-related vision issues are specific to sight. They affect visual input, processing, and integration. As such, they can make it difficult for children to learn in school.

Types of Learning-related Vision Issues

There are several of these issues. They include:

• Eye health

• Refractive problems

• Functional vision problems

• Perceptual vision problems

Eye Health

Problems with eye health can cause children to have low perception. Sometimes, refractive errors can accelerate the development of age-related eye diseases. It may result in the early development of diseases like cataracts. 
 

The condition causes their natural eye lens to become cloudy. Consequently, their sight may be blurry, causing issues in learning. Permanent damage to eye health does not respond to eyeglasses or contact lenses. In some cases, your child may require surgery.

Refractive Problems

Refractive problems affect your child’s visual acuity. The doctor will use an eye chart to measure the type and level of error. Refractive errors include astigmatism, nearsightedness, and farsightedness. It can also involve higher-order aberrations that are subtle optical errors. All these can negatively affect your child and hold back their learning ability.

Functional Vision Problems

These affect specific functions and their neurological controls. These functions include eye movements, eye teaming, and accommodation. Problems in these functional movements can result in headaches, eyestrain, and double or blurry eyesight. 

When children experience these symptoms, they become reluctant to participate in class and learn. Convergence insufficiency is a condition that affects the alignment of the eyes. It distorts your child’s ability to align their eyes well when reading.

Perceptual Vision Problems

These affect visual perception. Perceptual vision problems make it hard to identify, understand, and judge the importance of objects and images. Thus, children cannot relate what they see to information in their brains. It makes it difficult to recognize words and form mental pictures using them. 

When you notice these issues, look for an optometrist specializing in vision therapy. They will evaluate your child and diagnose learning-related vision issues. They can help your child build eye skills and overcome issues wherever possible. 

It is crucial to ensure that your child goes for comprehensive eye exams from the time they are six months old. Doing this helps you capture these issues before they hold back your child for too long. Otherwise, catching up with their learning and schoolwork will be an uphill task.

For more information on learning-related vision issues, call (267) 500-9600 to reach Holistic Vision at our office in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania.