People who suffer from reading difficulties often have higher than normal problems in visual cognition, including visual stress, accommodative insufficiency, binocular instability and several others, according to a Grand Blanc MI optometrist. Some deficiencies are not easily seen because other aspects of visual acuity may show within normal ranges during testing, so the effects of these deficiencies are attributed to other causes, such as fatigue, stress, and physical ailments or disorders. Likewise, any Sandusky MI optometrist can tell you that, for example, diabetes mellitus can be a major factor in vision problems, which is why it is often singled out as the cause of such vision problems. Which, of course, is not necessarily true in all cases.

Fortunately, visual impairment due to tissue degeneration is not common in children, and no evidence has been found linking visual impairment to reading difficulties such as dyslexia. However, the symptoms can be interpreted as neurological indicators, so much so that their sudden appearance should guide the optometrist towards other possible causes, especially when accompanied by changes in the general state of health of the child.

Visual acuity

Many children with learning disabilities have low visual acuity, often characterized by blurred vision or double vision. But being inexperienced in these matters, a good percentage of them do not even know that they have vision problems, until others inform them. For many, simple corrective lenses often correct the refractive errors of the eyes and improve their performance.

Additionally, other deficiencies such as strabismus or amblyopia are often corrected by sensory adaptations, where the other oculomotor muscles compensate for the abnormalities. In strabismus, for example, visual dependency may be focused on just one eye, which, while binocular vision may be reduced, could also improve reading ability.

Binocular instability, accommodation problems

This impairment is characterized by the movement of binocular vision, generally focusing and blurring the object in view. One study showed that about 15% of dyslexic children have binocular instability, while it only occurs in about 5% of children with normal vision. Similar to this is impaired accommodation, when the eye fails to focus as quickly as normal or fails to focus when switching from looking at distant objects to near ones. However, the latter defect can also be due to non-optometric reasons, such as short-term memory lapses.

conclusion

Because such ‘minor’ defects in a child’s visual acuity may not be readily apparent, it is best to examine the child’s eyes when symptoms are detected or manifestations are suspected. Poor performance in school may be just one of these manifestations, and others may range from difficulty seeing things to a propensity to fail in vision-related activities. Likewise, it is recommended to refer these people with vision problems to the appropriate professionals, those with specialized training and the skills to carry out detailed and technical examinations to detect these visual deficiencies.

Addressing any flaws found–whether through treatment or correction—can help the affected person achieve more in all aspects of their life. Vision is one of the senses that is simply the most terrible to lose.