All it means when someone has 20/20 vision is that they are able to see something clearly from 20 feet away without glasses. They could still be dealing with any number of a wide range of vision problems other than basic refractive errors, all of which are much more likely to remain undiagnosed and untreated.
Some eye problems come with very obvious symptoms, such as lazy eyes or crossed eyes, but most are subtler, particularly in children. Young kids don’t know that what they are experiencing isn’t normal, so it rarely occurs to them to describe it to an adult. All they know is that they are expected to perform at the same level as their peers and that they can’t seem to keep up for some reason. The result is frustrated adults, confused and upset children, and an unfortunate number of misdiagnosed learning disorders.
Symptoms to watch for include:
For good eyesight, we don’t just need our eyes to work individually. We also need them to work effectively as a team, which is called binocular vision. You can see how it works by closing one eye, then the other, while focusing on the same object. You’ll notice that you see things from a slightly different angle out of each eye. This is due to the distance between your eyes. Our brains combine the two images into a single 3D one, which is how we can judge distances.
A variety of problems can impede binocular vision:
Most forms of binocular vision dysfunction can be treated through visual therapy or corrected with special glasses, but only if they are diagnosed. Some are best corrected with surgery.
School nurses often give students the big E test, but this only helps them diagnose nearsightedness. Only a comprehensive eye exam can test for other vision problems, and it is critical to a child’s education to catch a vision problem early on. Many adults never received a diagnosis and went through all of their years of school struggling to see. If you think you or your child might have an undiagnosed vision problem, don’t hesitate to schedule an eye exam.
Top image used under CC0 Public Domain license. Image cropped and modified from original.
The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.