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Education
From overcoming reading disabilities to enhancing studying performance, vision therapy can help.
We promote healthier vision by training the brain to use the eyes more efficiently.
Up to 80% of struggling readers are lacking visual skills. If the eyes can’t track accurately through the text, reading becomes difficult. These problems can mimic other learning disabilities.
If the eyes don’t work well together, it takes more energy to try to stay focused. It’s like trying to ride a bike with flat tires. These vision problems cause 7 of the 9 symptoms of attention deficit disorder.
Does your child produce messy writing with bad spacing? Vision problems can cause writing to be muddled with unequal spacing, reversed letters, or slow output. It is also a leading cause of challenges copying off the board.
‘Fonetik‘ spelling? If a child doesn’t have good visual memory abilities, spelling will often be phonetic or random. Less than 50% of the English language is phonetic so visual memory skills are a must.
Vision Skills are Necessary for Reading
Eye Tracking
If your eyes don’t track accurately, the information on the page will get mixed up. When it’s bad enough, a child may not even recognize the same word three lines later.
Accomodation
Your brain controls how accurately your eyes focus on the page. Problems with accommodation can cause blurry vision, headaches, difficulty with concentration and more.
Eye Teaming
For focus and attention, your eyes need to work together efficiently. Problems like convergence insufficiency can cause headaches, migraines, difficulty with computer screens and more.
Visual Processing
Your brain needs to accurately decode your vision. This includes things like visual memory for spelling and directionality for understanding letter reversals.
80% of Struggling Readers Lack One or More Visual Skills
Vision Problems Can Look Like:
Attention Deficit Disorder
Children with ADHD who also had eye teaming problems were found to score lower on the ADHD testing once the eye teaming problems were treated. 7 of the 9 symptoms are the same.
Dyslexia
If the information does not make it accurately from the page to the brain, it will cause problems learning the written language. Too often testing assumes that vision is working properly, and diagnoses a problem higher up the chain.
Vision Problems Can Look Like:
Developmental Coordination Disorder
Developing accurate coordination requires accurate coordinates. If you didn’t know where to go on a map, it would be hard to get there.
Learning Disabilities
If the brain doesn’t take in or process vision accurately, it can cause difficulties in learning ranging from mild to severe. In the process of diagnosing a learning disability, these visual functions are often overlooked.
7 of the 9 Symptoms of ADD/ADHD can be Caused by a Vision Problem
If you were trying to ride a bike with flat tires, wouldn’t you have trouble keeping the bike moving smoothly? If a child’s eyes don’t work efficiently and it requires a lot more energy to try to read or stay focused, they will give up sooner or avoid doing it. Studies have shown that treating these vision problems (if present) reduces attention deficit disorder symptoms.
‘In an open trial, attention and internalizing problems improved significantly following treatment for CI (Convergence Insufficiency).’ Behavioral and Emotional Problems Associated With Convergence Insufficiency in Children: An Open Trial.
Borsting E1, Mitchell GL2, Arnold LE2, Scheiman M3, Chase C4, Kulp M2, Cotter S5; CITT-RS Group. J Atten Disord. 2016 Oct;20(10):836-44. doi: 10.1177/1087054713511528. Epub 2013 Nov 22
Writing Requires Fine Visual-Motor Skills
The fine motor coordination required for writing needs finely tuned visual coordinates. If your child is struggling with writing, they could have undiagnosed vision problems.
Signs of a vision causing problems with writing:
- reversed letters
- unequal spacing
- difficulty copying off the board
- reduced writing output
- poor spelling
Test 1: This boy’s writing changed dramatically after vision therapy. His hockey improved, his reading soared, and most importantly he believed he was smart.
Test 2: This 8-year-old boy’s writing changed dramatically with treatment.
Spelling Requires Visual Memory
More than half of the English language doesn’t follow the phonetic rules. Parents are amazed when a child can all of a sudden ace their spelling tests, and spell a word like pneumonia forwards and backward, all by utilizing their visual memory.
What Needs To Be Tested If Your Child Is Struggling?
Eye Tracking
If your child cannot accurately move their eyes through the text, they won’t get the right information from the page.
Eye Focusing
Your child’s eyes need to be able to work together. Problems with how the eyes work together (binocular dysfunction) can cause problems with reading and attention.
Eye Teaming
Your child’s eyes need to be able to focus and hold the focus on the page, as well as easily shift back and forth from the page to the board.
Visual Processing
Problems with visual processing can lead to letter reversals such as ‘b’ and ‘d’, as well as trouble with writing, spelling and more.
- Dr. Cameron McCrodan answers your questions.