Homework Hassles? Is Your Kid Seeing Clearly?
Posted: Tuesday, October 28, 2008
by Avis Ward
GeoVi's Home for Pregnant Teens
It has been reported that eye problems tend to emerge during homework battles. As many as one of every 20 students have some degree of what eye doctors call "convergence insufficiency," or CI, where eye muscles must work harder to focus up-close. And those standard vision screenings administered by schools and pediatricians won't catch it - they stress distance vision, according to ophthalmologists. Complaints are rare in very young children because pictures and large type don't require as much convergence. Parents tend to start noticing a problem once homework and deeper reading begins. Some people complain only in the teen or college years, perhaps when their workload outpaces their ability to compensate. Others find they can read with one eye closed and do fine.
Nor does everyone experience obvious symptoms. How many compensate enough that CI truly doesn't matter - and how many quietly try to avoid reading? No one knows.
Dr. Mitchell Scheiman of the Pennsylvania College of Optometry at Salus University is suspicious when a child's "behavior is, 'I don't want to read, I don't like reading, I can't concentrate." His advice then: "Just rule it out."
Diagnosis requires seeing an ophthalmologist or optometrist trained to treat children who can measure convergence with some simple tests such as moving a pencil steadily closer to the nose until the person sees double.
But which treatment works best: The most commonly prescribed "pencil push-ups," practicing that pencil-to-nose test at home? At-home computer eye games? Or more varied eye exercises, including computer-based ones, performed in a doctor's office with at-home techniques for reinforcement?
The National Eye Institute funded a study aimed to find out. They randomly assigned 221 patients between 9 and 17 years of age, to one approach or to a control group given dummy' exercises at the doctor's office.
The study showed that nearly three-quarters of the office-treated patients had great improved, three months later compared with no more than 43 percent of home-treated patients. This report is found in this month's Archives of Ophthalmology by Scheiman and his colleagues. The study will continue tracking patients for one year to see if the benefits are long-lasting.
"The right treatment can make a profound difference", says Adele Andrews of Rydal, Pa., whose son Thomas participated in the study when he was 10 - and improved enough to at last start reading for fun.
Treatment requiring office visits and more intense treatment provided at the office is clearly more expensive. Ms. Andrews stated, "Thomas was originally assigned to pencil push-ups but improved only slightly. After his 12 study weeks were over, researchers switched him to office-based treatment - and his mother saw a rapid lessening of the homework battles."
Today at 13, Thomas has "become pretty serious about his schoolwork," says a relieved Andrews. "He's going to do OK."
To learn more about the health of your children's eyes, please visit the site of the American Association of Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus' public resources library.
(Resources for this article were provided by the Associated Press and Archives of Ophthalmology)
2008 by Avis Ward of GeoVi's Home for New Life
This Article has been viewed 267 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)Avis, very informative article. As a father of a boy who was diagnosed with amblyopia late, I can attest to the relative ineffectiveness of the school eye tests. He passed all of his until first grade. I would definitely recommend having your child's eyes checked by a professional if they show any signs at all of strain.Rob, thank you. I am happy you and Laura were able to get your son's eye problem properly diagnosed and treated. I am happy you could contribute firsthand to the information in this article. Early intervention is always best. You've clearly supported the importance of parents checking into vision and other tests themselves. Rob, I just do not trust "public" systems. Too many shortcuts are taken and it's not as it used to be at all. Not only did the village raise a child but the educators did too in very constructive ways showing how much everyone truly cared about the welfare of children.
All that to say, I am immensely pleased with your input and recommendation to parents. Thank you for reading and your comments.
Hi Avis, thank you for your article. Full of information. Several years ago one of my family member's son was unfortunately diagnosed with Dyslexia. They were prepared to place the child on medication, but I felt they'd diagnosed him wrongly, and that instead there was something wrong with his vision. Well, the mother finally took him to see a professional ophthalmologist. The child's only problem was he couldn't see and sat too far away from the board. He's fine now with his new glasses seeing too much.:-)DeborahI'm grinning now that "he's seeing too much" with his new glasses. I am very happy to grin about the ending to this story, Deborah. It would have had a different ending if you were not tuned-in. Thanks for the support and your input. To have your story and Rob's support this article is meaningful. I may be clueless about all of this since I do not have children and haven't been around them on a day-to-day basis so I find this information interesting and fascinating.
Praying you are having a productive and fruitful meeting with your publisher. How exciting that must be! All the best. :-)
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