My child has difficulties in learning and doing manual work: how can the optician help?

If a child has difficulty in learning or doing manual work, it is important to see if he sees well. The ophthalmologist Cristina Brito advises parents to pay attention to their behaviour.

At school age, we often notice that children have some difficulty, either because they have errors in their writing, i.e. difficulty in focusing both near and far, as well as at all distances, because they need glasses. These are what we call refractive errors. Refractive errors are myopia, astigmatism or hyperopia. Often the child doesn't realise they have this difficulty, it's only through their behaviour that we can tell. Either they come too close to the blackboard, or they are always copying from next door, or they are not interested in more detailed work, or they are not interested in reading, and sometimes we see that when we correct these errors their behaviour changes. The correction will be the fitting of glasses.

There is another situation which is the alterations in balance, in the alignment between the two eyes, which sometimes are not always evident, it is what we call strabismus. Sometimes they are triggered under certain circumstances, and the family or the child may not be aware of it, and these situations, if corrected and identified, can change this behaviour. In any case, it is advisable to carry out a global medical examination focused on the optic part, on correction with glasses, but sometimes there are other visual problems (which are not only related to the need for glasses), which the doctor, especially the doctor who is used to seeing children, interprets differently and sees the child's health as a whole.

In tomorrow's programme we talk about glasses and sports activities.

With the support of the Portuguese Society of Ophthalmology.