Behavioural optometry is not about fixing bad behaviour in the classroom.
A vision problem can create frustration for child, parent and teacher alike. Visual difficulties can also lead to comments regarding attention, distractibility or even accusations of “laziness”. It is easy to understand how the behaviour and symptoms that accompanies a vision problem could be blamed on other things.
A common presenting complaint to our clinic is a child who is having “tracking problems”. This phrase is used to describe a variety of issues from those related specifically to reading, but sometimes writing and copying. Symptoms related to tracking problems are described in different ways:
High Myopia and Ortho-K
Ortho-K is demonstrating increasing promise as a potential method for slowing the progression of myopia in children and teens. In the past, the potential for Ortho-K to be used for both a sight correcting technique and for myopia control was limited by a person’s initial prescription. Up to approximately -4.50 was considered the limit for Ortho-K. There are two approaches they are considered when faced with higher myopia prescriptions and Ortho-K is being considered.
Car sickness/motion sickness is relatively common in children and women1. Most of the advice that you find on the internet relate to self-help or medication to decrease symptoms. However, an overlooked cause of these symptoms could be undiagnosed vision problems, known as vergence disorders.
Parents are often surprised to learn that babies and infants can and are fitted with contact lenses. So rather than ask “What age can my child wear contact lenses?”, it may be more appropriate to ask “Is my child ready for contact lenses?”
