Vision difficulties may affect children’s personal and social development. Optometrist Jerome Gabaretta gives tips to parents on how to recognise signs of problems.

Vision problems may affect children’s personal and social development in a multitude of ways. There may be several reasons why they develop problems in the first place but the important thing is that parents realise that their children are having visual difficulties.

Children and teens often spend numerous hours reading and writing and nowadays using digital devices such as tablets and computers.

Most of what is learnt at school is presented to students visually. Therefore it is imperative for parents to make sure that a child’s visual skills does not affect his or her academic performance.

A routine eye test at the start of the scholastic year is a must but it may not be enough.

Children may not readily complain about their visual difficulties and therefore parents should keep an eye out for the following signs and symptoms:

• Sitting very close to the television set

• Holding books or a tablet/mobile phone very close to their face

• Scrunching their eyes or even closing one eye to watch TV or read.

• Struggling to see the whiteboard at school (teachers might be able to point this out to parents)

• Frequent headaches

• Complaints of blurry vision

• Failure to maintain eye contact

• Excessive rubbing of eyes

• Excessive watering of eyes

• Child avoids reading, writing or drawing due to discomfort

An eye care professional will determine if the child’s eyes are in their normal stage of development and whether both eyes are developing at the same rate. A child’s eyes go through different stages of development over the years:

• Babies are able to track and focus just after a few months.

• At the age of four to five, preschool vision screening is important. A family history of a lazy eye or squint is an important indicator that a child’s eyes must be examined.

• Treatment for a lazy eye is most successful before the age of seven. A lazy eye, which is medically known as amblyopia, may have an effect on your children’s career choices in the future.

• At the ages of six to seven, children are prone to develop short-sightedness.

• After the age of seven, the eyes continue to grow and develop, thus, regular monitoring is necessary.

• Early teenage years are another key age group where short-sightedness or myopia may develop.

Children are often more responsive to treatment when diagnosed early

A child is not only examined for eventual eyesight correction but an ocular health assessment is also carried out. An eye test is a quick and simple process that may have a significant impact on a child’s vision. If one has any doubts, one should enquire with an eye care professional.

Timely identification of a child’s vision problems can be crucial as children are often more responsive to treatment when diagnosed early.

Jerome Gabaretta is the resident optometrist at Optika in Rabat and St Julian’s.