Children do not always know when something is wrong with their vision. They have never seen the world any other way, so blurry distant objects or words that blur on a page can feel completely normal to them.
They have no frame of reference to know that other people see things differently.
That is what makes vision problems in children genuinely easy to miss even for attentive parents.
The signs are often behavioural rather than visual, and they can look a lot like other things: difficulty concentrating, avoiding reading, getting easily frustrated with schoolwork.
Here are five signs worth knowing, and why catching vision problems early matters so much.
Jump to:
- Why Vision Problems in Children Are More Common Than Most Parents Realise
- 1. Sitting Too Close to the Screen or Squinting at Distant Objects
- 2. Frequent Headaches or Eye Rubbing, Especially After Near Work
- 3. Losing Their Place When Reading or Avoiding It Altogether
- 4. Covering or Closing One Eye
- 5. Poor Performance in Sports or Misjudging Distances
- Conclusion
Why Vision Problems in Children Are More Common Than Most Parents Realise
The scale of childhood vision problems is significant and often underestimated.
According to the American Optometric Association, one in five preschoolers in the United States has a vision problem. By the time children reach school age, one in four will need or wear corrective lenses.
Perhaps most concerning is that school vision screenings, the standard first line of detection, can miss up to 75% of children with vision problems.
A child who passes a school screening can still have a clinically significant vision issue that a comprehensive eye exam would detect.
Vision is the dominant sense children use for learning. When it is compromised, the effects reach into reading, writing, sports, social interaction, and self-confidence in ways that can persist long after the original problem goes unaddressed. Early detection changes that trajectory entirely.
1. Sitting Too Close to the Screen or Squinting at Distant Objects
This is often the most visible sign, and it is easy to dismiss as a screen habit rather than a vision issue.
When a child consistently moves closer to the television, holds a book very close to their face, or squints noticeably when looking at a whiteboard, a distant sign, or anything more than a few feet away, they are compensating for an inability to see clearly at a distance.
Squinting temporarily changes the shape of the eye, sharpening the focal point and improving clarity.
The fact that a child does it instinctively, without being taught to, suggests they have discovered it helps; without it, they are struggling.
This pattern is a classic presentation of myopia, or nearsightedness, which is the most common refractive error in school-age children.
A comprehensive exam through a pediatric ophthalmology in Nassau County specialist goes well beyond the distance charts used in school screenings.
It assesses how the eye focuses, tracks, and works as a binocular system providing a complete picture that a brief school-based screen simply cannot replicate.
2. Frequent Headaches or Eye Rubbing, Especially After Near Work
When the visual system has to work harder than it should to maintain a clear image because of an uncorrected refractive error or a difficulty with eye focusing, the eye muscles involved in accommodation and convergence fatigue more quickly.
That fatigue manifests as headaches, often described as being behind the eyes or across the forehead, and as eye rubbing, particularly towards the end of the school day or after extended reading or screen time.
Many parents connect these symptoms to screen time or tiredness, which is not unreasonable.
But when they occur consistently in the context of close visual work rather than at random times of day, the pattern points to a visual system working under strain.
Addressing the underlying refractive or binocular vision issue typically resolves the headaches and rubbing without any other intervention.
3. Losing Their Place When Reading or Avoiding It Altogether
Reading requires the eyes to work together as a team tracking along a line of text smoothly, returning accurately to the start of the next line, and maintaining focus across an entire page.
When eye tracking or eye teaming is off, this coordinated effort breaks down. Children lose their place, re-read the same line twice, skip words, or lose the thread of what they are reading entirely.
The Pediatric Eye Center specialise in children’s eye care sees a significant number of children referred by teachers and educational specialists for exactly these reading-related concerns.
What often looks like a reading difficulty, an attention problem, or a reluctance to engage with books often has a straightforward visual cause that responds well to glasses or vision therapy.
Children who avoid reading or become frustrated and emotional about it are often not unmotivated; they are exhausted by the effort required to do something that feels effortless for their peers.
Recognising that distinction early saves a lot of frustration for both the child and the family.
4. Covering or Closing One Eye
When a child consistently covers or closes one eye to look at something, particularly when reading, watching television, or doing anything that requires sustained focus, it usually means the two eyes are not working together effectively, or that one eye is significantly stronger than the other.
This sign is worth taking seriously promptly. Amblyopia, commonly known as lazy eye, develops when the brain learns to suppress the input from one eye in favour of the stronger one.
The visual system is most responsive to treatment during the early years of childhood when the visual cortex is still developing. Treatment is most effective before age seven or eight. After that, the window for correction narrows significantly.
An eye that appears to turn in or out, even occasionally, is also a sign worth acting on quickly. Strabismus is not a cosmetic issue, it is a functional one that affects how the brain processes visual information, and early intervention consistently produces better outcomes than waiting to see if the child “grows out of it.”
5. Poor Performance in Sports or Misjudging Distances
Depth perception, spatial awareness, and hand-eye coordination all rely on accurate visual processing.
A child who consistently struggles to catch a ball, misjudges where steps are, trips on uneven surfaces, or seems less coordinated than their peers may be dealing with a binocular vision problem rather than a coordination issue.
This sign is easy to attribute to natural variation in athletic ability or physical development.
But when it occurs alongside other signs on this list, or when the child themselves expresses frustration about feeling like they cannot do what other children do easily, a comprehensive eye exam is a logical and low-barrier first step.
Conclusion
The most important thing to know is that a school vision screening is not the same as a comprehensive eye exam. Passing a screening does not mean a child’s visual system is fully functional.
The screening is a basic distance acuity check; it does not assess eye teaming, eye tracking, focusing flexibility, or binocular function.
A comprehensive paediatric eye exam does all of those things, and it is the standard recommended by the American Optometric Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics for children at regular intervals from infancy through school age.
For children showing any of the signs described above, an exam provides answers rather than reassurance alone.
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