Healthy Eyes, Smart Kids


 

When I was a sophomore in high school, I noticed that my vision started to get a little fuzzy. My mom brought me to the optometrist and sure enough… I needed glasses. The prescription wasn’t particularly strong, but wearing them made a huge difference.

Flash forward several years… now I’m married to a wonderful guy who unfortunately has very poor eye sight and can’t see much without his glasses. Because of this, we are very sensitive to our children’s eye health. We make sure they have an annual eye exam with an eye doctor because even though, yes, schools do vision screenings, they do not provide the same level of detection as comprehensive eye exams. Annual eye exams – such as the VSP Vision Care WellVision Exam® allow VSP eye doctors to detect early signs of health conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol, among others.

This year we thought Noah might need glasses because he’d been complaining of headaches and rubbing his eyes (two signs that there might be a problem). We were surprised (pleasantly so) to learn that his vision is totally fine. But I can’t imagine not following up on what could be tell-tale signs that your child needs glasses.

What else should parents look for? Here are a few things:

  • squinting
  • head tilting
  • avoiding “close work”
  • trouble focusing

One  in four children have an undetected vision condition that can negatively impact learning.

Jake’s vision is almost super-hero good. In fact, the doctor remarked that she was impressed how quickly his focus adjusts and this is probably one of the reasons he’s such a good reader — his eyes can glide along the page from word to word with very little effort.

My exam went well too and my prescription did change slightly so I got a pair of new glasses (which I probably would have gotten even if my prescription remained the same). My new specs have a funky tiger strip on the inside, which I love!

mosaic

Chances are, all of our kids will need glasses at some point though, so we will continue to “watch” how well they see. And now that most children have been in school for a while, it’s important to make sure they can see the board without trouble and they’re not having trouble with their schoolwork.

Good eyesight is integral to successful learning — 80 percent of what we learn is through our eyes! Goodness, I just can’t imagine going through life without the gift of sight. Do you take your kids for annual eye exams?


Visit SeeMuchMore for more information about VSP and vision care benefits.  I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective, and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.