BY AARAN PATEL
Does your child or a child you are teaching, struggle with reading tasks? Do they hate being given a piece of comprehension homework? Do they complain of having to read for more than a few minutes? Do they seem to try to avoid doing any schoolwork? Do you feel like they are able to read but they are slow, and something seems to be hindering them?
As a parent or teacher, it is essential to try to understand why a child may be falling behind in class or struggles with simple pieces of homework or reading. Whilst there can be many reasons why a child is having difficulties at school, checking their eyesight is often a very sensible first step. Often, it can appear that a child is not motivated or perhaps has learning difficulties when it could be their eyesight which is hindering their progress at school. And the good news is that these issues can usually be easily addressed.
As an optometrist, I spend a lot of my week examining the eyes of the next generation. With parents and children, I first explore whether the child has any visual stress by asking questions about:
- Eye strain
- Movement of words or letters
- Distortion of words or letters
- Skipping lines or words
- Blurred vision when reading
- Tilting or moving the page of text
- Moving your head when reading
- Colour splodges and auras when reading
- Poor concentration when reading
- Headaches
The next objective is to figure out if they need a prescription for their eyesight, or do they need some help with their eyesight in general. Sometimes, all a patient requires is a pair of prescription spectacles, and they will see a vast improvement in their schoolwork and general reading ability.
I then check for any eye muscle imbalances such as ‘Convergence Insufficiency’ which is where the eyes may not track efficiently together. Convergence insufficiency (CI) is ‘a common binocular vision disorder that is often associated with a variety of symptoms’. These include: eye strain, headaches, blurred vision, double vision, sleepiness, difficulty concentrating, movement of print while reading and loss of comprehension after short periods of reading or performing close activities’ (Archives of Ophthalmology 2008).
If there is a complex eye muscle issue, I will generally refer the patient to an Orthoptist who will delve deeper into their eye muscles and generally prescribe exercises to help them. Please see Fran Goldin’s brilliant article on the world of Orthoptics.
I then look into colorimetry. Colorimetry, is a diagnostic and therapeutic tool, involving the use of coloured overlays or precision tinted lenses to optimize visual perception and reduce the effects of visual stress. A child often has no idea that visual stress is what they are suffering with as they perceive their symptoms as being normal.
The role of colorimetry is a method for managing and alleviating visual stress symptoms. To truly assess whether a patient needs precision tinted lenses we need to assess if they experience visual stress. Visual stress, also known as Meares-Irlen Syndrome or Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome, is a condition that affects individuals’ visual perception and can lead to reading difficulties. During an assessment, we present a patient with a range of colours and saturation using the cerium intuitive colorimeter. Once we have found the specific tint colour, we use it on the visual tracking device.
The visual tracking device monitors a patient whilst reading, it utilises three cameras to track their eye movements and muscles. We first assess a patient reading a block of black text on a white background. If there was a colour found during the colorimetry assessment we will also apply that to the screen background. An assessment then can be made on whether the colour improves the patient’s reading speed and also if any muscle imbalances are improved with a prescription in place. The visual tracking device allows us to conclude what is best for the patient.
Visual tracking device and analysis
Sometimes a patient needs a multifactorial approach to their eye issues, they may need just simple prescription glasses, eye muscle exercises and or precision tinted spectacles. Once we have decided what the patient would benefit from we put together a plan over the next year, sometimes more regular follow-ups need to occur. Often at follow-up appointments parents wax lyrical about how much their child has progressed at school and is able to pick up a book and enjoy reading.
Aaran Patel
MCOptom BSc (Hons)
Radlett Opticians
Orriss & Low Optometrists
First Image Credit: Mimma Key/Shutterstock
