Today’s studies indicate that about one in four children have vision disorders that interfere with their ability to learn in school. Children who have a hard time reading and completing assignments, or who have become uninterested in reading, most likely have dyslexia or double vision disorder.
These conditions usually cause eyestrain, blurred vision, and headaches when reading. Because it is hard to focus on individual words, children with these conditions oftentimes omit words, lose place frequently, close one eye and show difficulty sustaining reading for a long period of time. Reading comprehension often suffers as a result of the excess effort required to make the print clear and single. Most children unnecessarily struggle, need more time to complete assignments, or just simply avoid reading.
Dyslexia
When parents notice a child reversing his or her letters, they oftentimes suspect that the child can potentially have dyslexia. Dyslexia is a language-based learning disability that can cause difficulty with writing, reading and spelling.
Writing letters in reverse is one of the most recognizable and well-known signs that indicate that a child may have dyslexia. So when a child is having a difficult time learning how to read and reverses letters, it can be reasonable to speculate that dyslexia can be to blame.
If your child is three to six years old and you notice that he or she is reversing letters, there is no reason to be concerned. When a child is first learning to read and write, confusing the left side with the right side and writing letters backwards is a perfectly normal part of the early development process. But if you notice your child still reversing numbers and letters in second grade or beyond, it might be time for a formal evaluation and a comprehensive vision exam by our experienced optometrists who specialize in functional vision care and vision therapy.
A child’s vocabulary is developed through reading. Children with dyslexia might lack command of the language despite great verbal skills because they read less and are exposed to less words. Even if a child has good listening comprehension, they might have weak reading comprehension because they read words inaccurately and slowly.
Dyslexia treatment will help children acquire the skills and knowledge they need to understand printed material at a level consistent with their verbal ability or comprehension skills.
Double Vision
When a person sees a double image where there should only be one, it is referred to as diplopia double vision. Both images can be one on top of the other, side by side or a combination of both.
Other than the clear difficulties of going through life viewing a double image, double vision could also cause disruptions in movement, balance and the ability to read.
Double vision could be monocular (affect just one eye) or binocular (affect both eyes). Treatments for this vary depending on the cause and type but include specially designed glasses, eye exercises and surgery.
Would you like to know more about dyslexia or double vision? Contact the pediatric ophthalmology and adult strabismus expert, Dr. Sami here!