June is Child Vision Awareness Month

June is Child Vision Awareness Month

Children’s vision challenges are particularly hard to detect because the child may not know they are seeing the world differently than other children. Infants and children should have eye exams to be sure that they can see both near and far away, make sure their eyes work together to focus on a single object, and that the eyes are disease free.

If vision problems are not detected, children can have developmental problems that are sometimes misdiagnosed as ADHD or other learning disabilities. Infants with vision loss cannot pick up cues such as body language and facial expressions which can hinder their language development. The same challenges can cause a child to have trouble learning to read or write since they cannot see the letters properly or keep them in focus long enough to process them.

Once properly diagnosed, glasses can correct many of these challenges, other times vision therapy is required. This process includes exercises that strengthen the muscles around the eyes and create good habits for the eyes.