What You Need to Know About Child Athletes and Vision

Left undiagnosed, vision problems can impact your child's ability to learn and develop new skills. Along with leading to academic issues, untreated vision issues can also affect other areas of the child's life — including athletic engagement. If your child is a student athlete, take a look at what you need to know about vision and sports.

How Does Vision Affect Sports-Related Skills?

Whether your child plays baseball, football, hockey, soccer, or any other sport, they need visual skills to perform well. Your child's vision plays a role in:

• Depth perception. This visual skill allows the child to judge the distance between themselves and a ball they're trying to hit/kick and other players. Without it, the child may have difficulty reaching their target, get hit by a flying ball, or may collide with other players.
• Peripheral vision. The ability to see to the sides without turning to do so is a necessity for sports play. Functional peripheral vision can help protect your child from getting hit in the face with a flying ball (or by another child).
  
• Eye-hand coordination. Coordinating movements play an important role for a child playing almost any sport. This ability allows the child to swing a tennis racket, hit a baseball, catch a football, throw a softball, and much more.
  
• Eye tracking. Children use this ability to following fast-moving objects or other people.
  

Along with these visual skills, your child also needs clear vision. The inability to see far or near can interfere with many different parts of sports play. Read on to find out more about near- and far-sighted vision issues and athletics.

What Are the Signs of a Childhood Vision Issue?

Again, there are many different visual skills that a child uses — during sports and non-sports times. That makes spotting a vision issue dependent on the specific problem. When it comes to near- and far-sightedness, look for red flags such as:

• Squinting. Children with problems seeing clearly often squint. This is a sign you may see before your child tells you that their vision is blurry.
• Headaches. While headaches have many different potential causes, blurry or strained vision can also result in this type of pain. A doctor's examination and vision test can rule out other conditions.
  
• Eye rubbing/blinking. This symptom also has several different possible causes. Like with headaches, a doctor's exam and vision test can help to rule out or diagnose eye issues.
  

Other sports-centered symptoms of vision issues include trouble hitting/kicking the ball, missing catches, running into other children, or a sudden lack of interest in practicing or playing.

Do Children Who Play Sports Need Special Eyewear?

If your child has a vision issue that requires corrective lenses, it's important they wear either glasses or contacts during all doctor-directed times — including during sports play. Contact sports or any game that involves flying or kicked balls, pucks, or projectiles put your child's eyes and their eyewear at risk.

What can you do to help protect your child's eyes, vision, and glasses? Instead of taking off their glasses to train or play a sport, the child can:

• Wear specialized eyewear. Protective prescription eyewear can reduce the risks to your child's eyes and their glasses.
• Protect contact lenses. Eye protection doesn't only apply to children who wear glasses. If your child wears contact lenses, they also need the same level of protection. A hit to the face could knock out or damage a contact lens, potentially injuring your child's eye.
  

If you have concerns about your child's vision interfering with sports play or you're worried about their ability to wear collective lenses during game times, talk to the eye care professional. The optometrist can answer your questions and create a care plan that accommodates all your child's activities.

Does your child need a vision exam? Contact South Park Optical Center  for more information.