Accommodative Insufficiency in Children

Your child's eye health should be a priority for his first years of life. It's a key to good physical development, will guarantee his best school experience and can even affect his social skills. As a parent, it's important for you to watch for signs of growing eye problems such as accommodative insufficiency. Accommodative insufficiency in children affects their ability to change focus from near to far, causing problems both in school work and in physical activities such as sports and games. It can be misdiagnosed as a learning disability or other problems, which why it's so crucial for your child to have regular eye examinations.

Making an Accommodative Insufficiency Diagnosis

The first key to diagnosing this condition is to pay attention to your child's symptoms. It's common for children to have a list of problems, including:

• Motion sickness'
• Double vision
• Lack of concentration
• Fatigue
• Headaches
• Blurred vision

It's most commonly found in school aged children when signifying behaviors begin to show. Children begin to have trouble focusing on tasks such as copying from the board, reading, and writing, causing many doctors to incorrectly diagnose the child as having ADHD or a learning disability. It's not that these children can't learn, it's just that they don't have the physical capability for doing the work. Once the symptoms are listed, our doctor can examine your child for further clues to a diagnosis.

What Causes Accommodative Insufficiency?

There is no single cause for this condition, but a group of causes that can combine to affect a child's focus. Children with poor general health are prone to developing this condition, as are those who have suffered from chronic fatigue, glandular fever, or bad influenza cases. Children can also develop this condition due to visual stress or some prescription medications.

Treatments

Once our pediatric optometrist diagnoses your child, we'll consult with you on the proper treatment to correct your child's vision problems. Your child may need to wear accommodative insufficiency glasses while he's reading to help with his focus, or we may suggest vision therapy to help with your child's focus. Vision therapy helps to teach the brain the right clues for focusing, and we've had good results with many children using this method.

Looking for Accommodative Insufficiency Treatment in Reno Nevada?

It can be frustrating to diagnose accommodative insufficiency since it can mimic so many other common childhood problems. At Epic Vision Development we have an extra emphasis on pediatric optometry and have experience treating a long list of patients with the same symptoms as your child. Give our office a call and make an appointment to help your child back on the path of good eye health. Contact us at (775) 507-7171 today.