Streff Syndrome can be seen in children & adults who have experienced severe stress or witnessed a traumatic event. I first became aware of Streff Syndrome when my colleague discussed his case in a zoom meeting.
The 4-year-old child was witness to her grandfather’s heart attack and subsequent passing away. The mother, in attempting to rescue the situation, did not think to remove the child from the room. It was only years later that Streff Syndrome was diagnosed.
My 1st hand experience of this was when I consulted with an 11-year-old child. Her FUNCTIONAL VISION was poor, yet her prescription was 0.00. She had been selectively mute since the age of 4, it was noted that she did not read much and did she participate in any afterschool sport. Her mum reported that she slept a lot in the afternoon. In my mind I was thinking…why would a healthy child sleep a lot. She had been in play therapy from age 4 to just before I had seen her.
On further investigation, I discovered that the dad, a police officer, had been shot when she was 4 years old.
I put up low plus power lenses and suddenly her visual world made sense to her. (I will be address the benefits of low plus lenses in a separate article). Various other markers pointed me in the direction of Streff Syndrome.
Streff Syndrome has been described as a functional vision problem. It involves:
- reduced/poor distance and near vision,
- poor eye teaming and eye movement capabilities
- visual field loss & a
- reduction in focusing.
”Remember: Children rarely report vision problems. They assume everyone sees the same way they do!
Natasha Jeena SpligKids Dialogue Optometrist
What We Can Do:
Identify the stress-causing problem and take the necessary steps to help resolve it. As it is a psycho-somatic problem, this will involve counseling in one form or another.
As the condition is self-limiting and resolves as the stress is reduced, there is no quick cure to resolve the visual problem. The management options available are:
- low plus glasses – either basic Single Vision reading lenses, Bifocal or Multifocal lenses
- vision therapy to help increase peripheral awareness in cases of a child/adult with visual field losses
- vision therapy to support focussing and eye movements.
Written by Natasha Jeena Splig, Kids Dialogue Optometrist