August is Vision and Learning Month

Welcome to August, the month filled with trying to jam in the last trips to the pool or park or beach while also shopping for school supplies and new shoes. August seems to be the month when children grow an extra two inches and find that none of their pants are the right length anymore.

Clarendon Vision wants to remind all of the families we serve that when children grow, their whole bodies grow. They may need new shoes or longer pants, but they may also need their vision reassessed because their eyes are changing and growing just like the rest of them. In addition, as their academic careers progress, some students find that coping strategies they’ve used in the past to cover for a vision challenge are not as effective. Sometimes it’s as simple as a change to their prescription for corrective lenses, but sometimes there is more to the story.

August is Vision and Learning Month

In 1995, August was declared Vision and Learning month.

“The overall goal of this national observance is to help increase awareness among parents and educators on the prevalence of undiagnosed or misdiagnosed vision problems.”

This is a great time to take stock of vision health and also consider your child’s vision in the context of their return to school. Children who have undiagnosed vision issues often don’t realize that the way they see things isn’t the way everyone else does, so they don’t know to ask for help.

Many vision problems are not detected by the state-mandated vision screenings done for schoolchildren in Illinois. Each child should be getting an annual comprehensive eye exam with an optometrist. At Clarendon Vision, our optometrists specialize in developmental optometry, and each child we see is screened for functional vision problems as well as the typical vision challenges like myopia or astigmatism.

Why do we do this? Vision and Learning month helps us to explain. Many learning challenges young people face are often misdiagnosed. ADHD, dyslexia, and other learning differences have a large overlap of symptoms and behavioral impacts with lesser known vision issues like binocular vision dysfunction, convergence insufficiency, or poor visual tracking skills.

During a comprehensive eye exam, we’ll screen students for functional vision problems and can recommend further evaluation where appropriate. For students with a functional vision problem, we may need to design a vision therapy program to help their eyes work together as a team, and their brain to better process the information their visual system is collecting. To help improve vision, we may also prescribe corrective lenses for those growing eyes and changing needs. Our optician can help students select fashionable and comfortable eyewear. Don’t just take our word for it, our patients and their parents have a lot to say about the ways we’ve been able to help them and their vision.

So come celebrate Vision and Learning month with Clarendon Vision by scheduling your children’s comprehensive eye exams soon. We want all our patients to have the opportunity to reach their potential in school and beyond.

P.S. Are you an adult reading this and thinking it sounds awfully familiar? We can also screen adults for functional vision problems during a comprehensive eye exam. Plenty of adults have been successful in easing their vision challenges with stress-relieving lenses or vision therapy. Schedule an appointment today.