Learning Difficulties
“It is estimated that 80% of children with a learning disability have an undiagnosed vision problem.” –Vision Council of America
Does your child seem bright, but struggle with reading?
Is he frustrated with school (as are you)?
Does he/she tire quickly with homework - come home exhausted from school?
Do you notice letter or word reversals?
When your child reads, is a marker or finger necessary to help him or her keep his or her place?
If so, vision is a likely cause.
When vision problems go undetected, children almost invariably have trouble reading and doing their school work. They often display fatigue, fidgeting, and frustration in the classroom—traits that can lead to a misdiagnosis of dyslexia, ADD, or other learning disabilities. During the past three decades we have helped hundreds of students to better grades, better attitude, increased self-esteem and overall improved school performance. Behavioral optometry is often the answer for children who are having difficulty in school. Here are some initial things you should look for:
*Seems bright, but struggles with reading or math.
*Fatigues quickly with any desk work: reading, math or writing.
*Reverses letters (p for q, d for b) or words (was for saw, on for no).
*Skips and rereads lines, or uses a finger or marker to keep place.
*Older students may be aware of words jumping around or any near work blurring.
*Poor speller when not on a spelling test.
*"Antsy" when required to do homework or sit for any extended time.
*Medication makes the teacher happier, but really hasn’t improved school performance.
*Labeled as LD, ADHD, or ADD.
Since the 1930’s and ‘40s optometry has been helping children with learning difficulties perform better in school. By the 1960’s electro-physiology research was beginning to prove why vision therapy (VT) was working. Of course by now we have an even better understanding of how the brain controls vision and how VT improves vision performance.
We all know that vision is the single most important component of learning. According to the American Public Health Association, “twenty-five percent of students in grades K through 6 have visual problems that are serious enough to impede learning.” How efficiently we use our visual system is a key to efficient learning. Behavioral optometry is concerned with this efficiency. It is well established that refractive conditions ("nearsighted") or clear sight ("20/20") are NOT critically important for learning. Most of the youngsters we see for academic concerns do well on a conventional exam. They have passed their school screenings; they often have even passed a full eye exam by another practitioner. But what has not been evaluated is how efficiently they visually perform! There are several key visual functions that are important for your youngster’s school performance.
The Key Skills Are:
Eye Movement: pursuits (tracking) and saccades (point to point)
Convergence: the two eyes working together at near
Binocular Vision: the two eyes teaming together
Focusing Facility: the ability to shift clear vision from one distance to another
Focusing Accuracy: focusing at the exact distance you are looking at
Fixation: aiming your eyes precisely and accurately at the word you are looking at
Depth Perception: seeing in "3-D"
HOW OUR EXAMINATION IS DIFFERENT
Unfortunately, parents and educators often incorrectly assume that if a child passes a school vision screening, there is no vision problem. However, school vision screenings often only test for visual acuity.
We have the skills, the background and the experience to talk with you and your youngster about his or her school work. We know what questions to ask. We know how important medical history is. Most importantly, we take the time necessary to thoroughly investigate your youngster's vision in the areas necessary for school performance. This involves more than seeing the technician for 10 minutes and the doctor for 3 minutes.
Yes, we will do the routine examination. We will find out his or her acuity. We will do a complete eye health evaluation. We also check for nearsightedness, farsightedness and cross-eyedness. But these are usually not problem areas for youngsters with academic problems. Of the hundreds and hundreds of youngsters we work with for academic concerns, over 95% do well on the conventional, old fashioned examination. They are rarely nearsighted, they almost always see 20/20 and only infrequently do they have trouble with eye-alignment. But they still have trouble in school.
Vision is a complex process that involves over twenty visual abilities and more than 65% of all the pathways to the brain. One in four children has an undiagnosed vision problem which can interfere with learning. Yet, it is important to note that these children frequently do not report symptoms because they think everyone else sees the same way they do. If we find a problem in the vision area, the most important thing is "WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT IT?"!! We typically recommend two modes of treatment: a pair of reading glasses to relax the focusing strain that nearly all these students experience with desk work, and a vision therapy program to improve the balance of your son or daughter’s visual skills. VT is ideally done in an office setting. This typically means a one hour visit, once a week for several weeks (remember, it took several years for your child to develop the bad visual habits he has, it will take several weeks for us to teach him correctly). If office VT is not an option we can set up a "home VT" program for you to work with your child at home.
One more note: although most of the behavioral work we do is with children with academic concerns we also work with other areas: strabismus ("cross-eyed"), amblyopia (one eye not seeing as clearly as the other) sports vision (we can improve your golf score) and any area of visual discomfort. We even help adults!
Feel free to check for more information at COVD (College of Optometrist in Vision Development) and OEP (Optometric Extension Program).
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