Hesperian Health Guides
Chapter 30: Loss of Vision and Difficulty Seeing
Difficulty seeing, also called vision loss or visual impairment, can be mild, moderate, or severe. Some children with vision loss have no vision (blindness). However, most can see somewhat. Some recognize the difference between light and dark or day and night. Others can see shapes or colors of large objects but not the details. A child’s difficulty seeing may be related to a condition affecting their eyes, or to a condition affecting their brain. Some children are born with visual impairment while others develop this during early childhood or later. Some children may start seeing better as they grow older and have better health.
Many more children have difficulty seeing clearly. For example, they may see fairly well for most daily activities, but have trouble seeing details. The family may not realize that the child has vision loss until they notice she has difficulty threading a needle, finding head lice, or reading letters on a blackboard at school. Often these children can see much better with eyeglasses, filter lenses or magnifying glasses, or training to use their vision. (Children who are completely blind cannot see at all, even with eyeglasses.) By figuring out what a child with vision loss can see, and what helps them to see, we can help them to use the vision they have to its full capacity.
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| what a child with no vision loss can see | what a child with some vision loss may see (large forms but no details) | what a child sees who can only tell the direction a bright light is coming from | what a child with total vision loss (blindness) sees |
This page was updated:04 Apr 2024