What causes poor eye coordination?

Eye coordination is a learned skill involving the eye muscles. Poor eye coordination results from a lack of adequate vision development or improperly learned eye muscle control. Although rare, poor eye coordination cal also occur as a result of an injury, disease, tumor, or other trauma.

How does poor eye muscle control affect vision?

Since the images seen by each eye must be virtually the same, a person usually compensates for poor eye muscle control by subconsciously exerting extra effort on the muscles in order to maintain proper alignment of the eyes. In more severe cases, the muscles cannot adjust the eyes to a point where the same image is seen and double vision occurs. Since the brain will do almost anything to avoid seeing double, it eventually learns to ignore the image sent by one eye. This can result in the ignored eye becoming amblyopic, a serious vision condition, more commonly known as lazy eye.

What are the signs / symptoms of poor eye coordination?

Some signs that may indicate poor eye coordination include double vision, headaches, eye and body fatigue, irritability, dizziness and difficulty in reading and concentrating.

Children may also display characteristics that may indicate poor eye coordination. These include covering one eye, skipping lines or losing one's place while reading, poor sports performance, avoiding tasks that involve close vision work and tiring easily.

How is poor eye coordination diagnosed?

Since poor eye coordination can be difficult to detect, periodic optometric examinations beginning at age 3 are recommended. A thorough examination by a doctor of optometry will determine the extent, if any, of poor eye coordination.

How is poor eye coordination treated?

Once detected, poor eye coordination is often successfully treated through the use of vision therapy, contact lenses and/or other optical aids. If detected early enough, the success rate for achieving proper eye coordination is quite high.

In some cases, eye coordination will improve when other vision conditions like nearsightedness or farsightedness are corrected. In a few cases, surgery may be necessary.