Vision Therapy and Learning-Related Vision Issues #4 – Treatment
Vision and learning are intimately related. In fact, experts say that roughly 80 percent of what a child learns in school is information that is presented visually. So good vision is essential for students of all ages to reach their full academic potential.
About 75% of students work twice as hard for their academic success because of a significant visual dysfunction.
Treatment of Learning-Related Vision Problems
If your child is diagnosed with a learning-related vision problem, treatment generally consists of a custom doctor-directed program of vision therapy. Special eyeglasses may also be prescribed for either full-time wear or for specific tasks such as reading.
If your child is also receiving special education or other special services for a learning disability, ask your eye doctor who is supervising your child’s vision therapy to contact your child’s teacher and other professionals involved in his or her Individualized Education Program (IEP) or other remedial activities.
In some cases, vision therapy and remedial learning activities can be combined, and a cooperative effort to address your child’s learning problems may be the best approach.
Also, keep in mind that children with learning difficulties may experience emotional problems as well, such as anxiety, depression and low self-esteem.
Reassure your child that learning problems and learning-related vision problems say nothing about a person’s intelligence. Many children with learning difficulties have above-average IQs and simply process information differently than their peers.
Learning-related vision problems can be assessed with vision therapy. To determine candidacy for vision therapy to help improve clear comfortable vision and school performance, a 2-hour Initial Assessment is completed. This testing is a critical appraisal of 12 visual skills related to visual performance, that goes far beyond the basic eye exam and 20/20 vision clarity; it assesses visual efficiency (eye focusing and teaming), reading eye movements and visual information processing (VIP) skills. If two or more of these visual skills are significantly below normal then they are likely creating visual-anchors and reduced school performance. These deficient visual skills are remedial with diligent effort with vision therapy that is doctor directed.
Please visit my website www.oakvillecentreforvision.com or call the office 905-338-2020 or email us at vt@oakvillecentreforvision.com for more information.