The Blue Eye Pediatric Ophthalmology Clinic also treats a fairly unknown disease which affects 3-4% of the school population (Italian Primary and Middle Schools), namely, dyslexia.
What Is Dyslexia In Children
At a glance, it is the difficulty in reading correctly and fluently, thus inability to understand text accurately. Dyslexic children can read and write but only by engaging their abilities and energies to the fullest. It is the experience of textual perceptual distortions, such as blurriness, movement of letters or words, and the differences in the number of spaces between words. Since they cannot do it automatically, they get tired quickly, make mistakes, are left behind easily.
The causes of dyslexia are still unknown; some believe it is caused by the involvement of psychological and environmental factors, others favor a genetic reason, and others leading to neurocerebral level.
Symptoms Of Dyslexia In Children
Every dyslexic individual is obviously a case of its own but you can recognize in preschool level and school-age some “red flags” that commonly signal the presence of the disorder.
The following are:
- a reduced ability to recognize and memorize the letters of the alphabet,
- the difficulty in learning new words resulting in reduced vocabulary,
- the delayed development of pronunciation and language skills compared to other children of the same age,
- the difficulty in spelling,
- and the confusion of the order of the letters resulting in slow reading and inability to write answers to questions that had been said verbally.
Management Of Dyslexia In Children
Medical treatment is not indicated in managing dyslexia because it is not a disease but a specific learning disorder by still largely unknown origins. Managing dyslexia teaches the child strategies that allow them to study and learn more independently. It was also found that even an optical correction can improve reading ability.
The use of colored lenses help to resynchronise and change, in a dynamically balanced way, the wavelength of every color of light that enters the eye. The use of different colors effectively changes the speed of information in the neurological pathways of those affected by dyslexia, allowing for an improvement in the ability to read, write, and understand. Therefore, this is not surgery or drug therapy. There are risks associated with the use of medical devices and procedures. With the treatment described above, ease of reading is improved in 50% of dyslexic children.
