Wow Vision Therapy Blog

When a child struggles in school, the biggest question for a parent to answer is why?  While setting up study plans and establishing goals can be effective, many parents discover that their child’s avoidance behaviors cannot simply be corrected by rules and expectations. The child is frustrated with reading, and grades continue to drop, despite their best efforts to improve. Tensions rise within the family when a child cannot overcome their study struggles.

At this point, parents usually consider alternative reasons for their child’s learning block, and start to look for answers. What if their vision is the problem? A standard eye exam checks eyesight and for ocular diseases, but doesnt always test the efficiency of the visual system” specifically binocular vision. According to the American Academy of Optometry, one in twelve children suffers from a condition called Convergence Insufficiency, or what could also be described as “near-double vision.”That means that two to three children in every classroom experience near-double vision on a daily basis, and their parents don’t even know.

Double vision is the sensation of your entire visual field splitting into two duplicate images each eye producing its own, separate picture. A person experiencing normal double vision would know immediately that there was problem. On the other hand, near-double vision is, by comparison, inconspicuous. It presents as a blurring and splitting of letters and words while reading. Numbers and letters float around the page, because the eyes cannot effectively turn inward to look at the same near target. As a result, the child sees moving and overlapping letters, making the task of reading unbearably challenging.