As back school nears, we’re trying to get our children prepared physically and emotionally for the new challenges they will face in the classroom and on the playground. Some of the rough, new bumps in the road we can foresee and help smooth out. But others, those that have to do with discrimination on the playground we may not be aware of, yet the psychological ramifications could be detrimental to our children’s social and emotional development.

Take for example, a recent study, about children with wandering eye are more susceptible to social isolation by their peers.  The study recommends refractive surgery for correction of the eye before six years old, because researchers have discovered that’s when the discrimination surfaces. Laser surgery for wandering eye could correct this problem. Dr. Sandy T. Feldman, corneal and refractive eye surgeon in San Diego, can consult with parents on what they could expect as far as outcome from this kind of treatment. Wandering eye, also known as strabismusis, a disorder recognized by a deviating eye, eye squint and or crossed eyes that stems from an absence of coordination between the eyes resulting in the eyes looking in different directions, according to the National Institutes of Health. Wandering eye is different than the more common lazy eye.

In the study, the researchers altered digital photographs of six sets of identical twins to develop inward and outward strabismusis to compare against normally aligned set of eyes. A group of 118 children from ages 3 to 12 with normal eyes were asked to look at four sets of pictures, one in each pair of the twins showed visible signs of wandering eye. The researchers asked the children who would they invite to the their birthday party. The children under the age of six did not discriminate between the wandering eye and normal eye twins. The physical distinction surfaced in the group of 48 children ages 6 to 8 years old. Eighteen made a choice to only invite children with a normal set of eyes.  To compare, in the younger set of 31 children ages 4 to 6, only one child didn’t invite a children with wandering eye to the birthday party. The results become more startling when you add in the researchers asking the children if they noticed anything different about the twins. Nineteen percent of the 4 to 6 year-old group noticed the wandering eye and after the researchers directed their attention to the eyes 39 percent commented on the alignment of the eyes. Likewise, in the 6 to 8 year old group, 48 percent recognized the wandering eye and jumped to 77 percent when attention was drawn to the twins eyes.

This study is telling to what our children are facing on the playground and the need to correct physical disorders such as wandering eye that seems harmless at home but could be a landmine socially for your child on the playground.

Dr. Sandy T. Feldman, an expert corneal and refractive surgeon, is available for a consult with parents on wandering eye and other eye disorders in children that may need special attention and refractive surgery for correction.