Note: since the beginning of this blog, I have mainly discussed visual problems related to learning problems and on the subject of myopia, I will now include a new topic (after one year of leave – to finish a book for optometrists) people are talking more and more about: brain injury (mild, moderate or severe) in children.
These blows to the head cause a multitude of symptoms including sensory deficits affecting, among others, vision and perception. With regard to these two aspects, symptoms often go unnoticed or people do not realize or forget that many of these complaints relate to visual-perceptual aspects.
Vision therapy can be not only very practical and effective but many times essential. After evaluation, examination and consultation, the optometrist determines how a person processes information after an injury and where that person’s strengths and weaknesses lie. The optometrist then prescribes a treatment regimen incorporating lenses, prisms and specific activities designed to improve control of a person’s visual system and increase vision efficiency. This in turn can help support many other activities in daily living.
A mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), also referred to as a concussion, is a disturbance in brain function that can be caused by a blow to the head, jaw, face, neck or body.
Disorders that result from brain injury can affect all brain functions – awareness, motor skills, language, behavior, character and cognitive functions and, in children, impair the ability of future learning. (1)
Road accidents, domestic accidents, sports accidents (skiing, biking, horseback riding …) and violence (shaken baby syndrome, attacks …) are the main causes of head trauma in children. (1)
Common signs and symptoms of an MTBI
- nausea and vomiting
- loss of consciousness
- feeling dazed and confused
- memory loss
- poor balance or coordination
Signs and symptoms following an MTBI usually last 1 to 3 weeks but may occasionally last longer. Frequently reported are: headache, dizziness, nausea, sleep disturbances, fatigue, irritability and restlessness, sensitivity to light, sound and motion, difficulty with memory, concentration, attention span, judgment or balance.
We will see later that all these symptoms may in fact last much longer than we can imagine…