Visual Deficiencies

By Shanon McQuown

Shanon co-moderates the School Issues: K-12 section of The Pediatric Network Forum. She is the founder of The YPWC Parent/Teacher Bridge Builder, where this article was originally published. Many thanks to her for sharing it with us! 

If your child is complaining of problems seeing when he or she is trying to read, please take him/her to a vision specialist for a thorough check up. Unfortunately, most people believe that when a person has 20/20 vision, it means that they can be having no problems seeing. This is an incorrect assumption and your child may be struggling needlessly.

My son's doctor describes it as this. Although Anthony has the visual acuity of 20/20, he has an accommodative insufficiency. This means that his eye muscles have difficulty maintaining up close focusing. This is NOT unheard of. This can cause eye pain, headaches, eye fatigue etc.

I have included a list of some sites that were helpful to me when I needed to understand why my son was having such a hard time with reading. I hope these links are helpful to you.

• Visual Dysfunction in CFIDS: The impact of recent events on PWCs and the CFIDS community By William V. Padula, O.D., FAAO, FNOR
  
  
• Visual Dysfunction in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome By By Lesley J. Vedelago, O.D.
  
  
• P.A.V.E. Parents Active For Vision Education
  
  
• Lifetime Eye Care
  
  
• Children's Vision Information Network
  
  
• Reading Problems
  
  
• Vision and School Problems
  
  
• Students with Persistent Problems- The Visual Connection
  
  

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