It’s a fresh new school year! At this point, every parent is hoping that this school year is the best one yet for their child. However, if he or she begins exhibiting signs of struggling in school, eyesight may actually be the thing to blame and not a disinterest in schoolwork.

Watch for the Signs

Fortunately, if your child does exhibit symptoms of near- or farsightedness, vision problems are easily corrected. The key is to know when to send your child to a doctor for an eye exam in order to help him or her get back to enjoying school.

The following are some signs your child may begin to show if he or she is having problem seeing.

First, you may notice your child squinting, which allows him or her to see a little bit more clearly than with eyes open fully. However, squinting only temporarily improves vision, so glasses will be needed in order to fix the issue permanently.

Sitting too close to the television can also be a sign your child is having problems seeing, as well as a clue that he or she may be nearsighted. People who are nearsighted tend to need to view things up close in order to have clear vision of an object, since seeing things from far away is blurry.

In addition, if your child begins to complain of experiencing headaches more frequently, then a trip to our office may be needed. When kids have trouble seeing or suffer from blurry vision, they will try to compensate by either tilting their head or moving close or far away in order to try and see better. However, the more they struggle to view things clearly, the more intense their headache may become. Therefore, fixing their eyesight may be the only way to alleviate their headaches, too.

If you feel your child may need glasses, contact our office to schedule a full eye exam so that our eye doctor can determine the best course of treatment.