Vision Care is Essential for Growing Children

Studies have shown that a lack of vision care can have harmful effects on a child’s growth. According to recent surveys, over half of all parents overlook their child’s eye health, which can impede their learning and increase their risk of developing diseases.

Eye exams are especially important for growing children. A child’s intellectual development is deeply connected to their senses, as over 70% of learning happens through sight. That means anything that interferes with a child’s concentration can affect their ability to learn. Vision problems affect 25% of all school age children – that’s a big fraction of kids who are learning at a disadvantage, especially if their needs haven’t yet been discovered. This can have a serious impact on academic performance, leading to further issues down the line.

Eye exams do much more for a child’s health than just check for vision issues, however. A comprehensive eye exam can now detect over 250 diseases throughout the body, making them crucial for maintaining one’s quality of life. That’s because the body is interconnected in ways that allow eye exams to discover conditions such as cancer, diabetes, and multiple sclerosis. While we often associate these diseases with adulthood and advanced age, these same symptoms can also be found in younger patients.

Studies say that over 60% of parents do not take their kids for routine eye exams – that means their vision could be declining for months before anyone realizes. This statistic is especially alarming since studies say that 60% of kids with learning disabilities have an undetected vision impairment. Some vision issues, called “functional vision problems”, aren’t even related to how clear one’s eyesight is, meaning that it’s possible for a child to have trouble focusing on their work without any obvious signs. In cases like these only an eye exam will be able to uncover the problem.

GVS prioritizes connecting families to the eye care they need. Our vision plan options can cover your entire immediate family, so you can conveniently and affordably stay on top of your child’s vision needs and development.