Many students with attention problems and learning
disabilities that don't achieve their potential have one
thing in common;
Vision Disorders contributing to
learning difficulties.
This August, as children head back to schools with reduced budgets, National Children's Vision & Learning Month takes on new meaning. Teachers and administrators now need to be more creative in order to help their students succeed.
"We try to do whatever is possible to stop children from needing to be classified for special education services,” Nicole Moore, an elementary school principal, shares. “Parents have told me that optometric vision therapy makes a big difference in their children's ability to read and learn. Screening and remediation of learning-related vision problems have been a significant factor in reducing the number of children referred for special education services."
Vision might be one of the missing links to helping students learn.
Barbara Scola, a Director of Pupil Services, brought vision therapy to her school. "I was working on my master's thesis and had the opportunity to work with a student who had excellent comprehension when the material was read to him, but struggled when he tried to read on his own." As she worked with him she found that he knew his words in isolation, yet when he saw the same words at the beginning of a line in a paragraph he didn't recognize them because he cut off the first two letters. For example, "Treat yourself to some ice cream" he would read as "Eat yourself to some ice cream." "This was quite a mystery, so I started researching to see what it could be. I suspected that his vision might be playing a role, so I started searching for information on learning disabilities and vision which lead me to optometric vision therapy," Scola continued.
Following Scola's recommendation, the mother took her child to an optometrist who had an in-office vision therapy program. After completing optometric vision therapy, he did very well in school. Once Scola received her Master's Degree in Education Administration, she joined Moore in the Shamong School District as the Director of Pupil Services and began implementing her new strategies. The mother of one of the first children who went through optometric vision therapy was working on her Ph.D. in Reading. Scola had encouraged her to give vision therapy a try. And it worked!
“She did not believe us at all, she thought it was bunk. Even with all of her education she had never heard of it. But her daughter couldn't read, so we said it can't hurt, just try it. And now her daughter is an avid reader and an excellent student thanks to optometric vision therapy.”
Scola explains to parents, "It doesn't matter if your child is gifted or not, if vision isn't working right, your eyes don't send the right signals to your brain. It's like having a real high speed computer, but if the keyboard isn't working, you get the wrong information, if any."
Some of the most common signs that a child may have a learning related vision disorder are:
- Homework battles even though the child is bright and may do well in school (because their eyes are tired at the end of the day from straining to focus)
- Tilts head or lays head on the desk during reading
- Short attention span when reading
- Poor reading comprehension
- Skips lines, rereads lines
"Even the most gifted students will struggle academically if they have trouble seeing the blackboard or focusing on a book. A tremendous amount of learning happens visually, so proper vision care is crucial to helping students reach their full potential."
Learn how vision disorders can cause even the brightest children to struggle with learning on COVD.org.
"Think outside the box when it comes to learning or reading issues,” Moore encourages other principals and administrators. Now we know what to look for in children with possible vision disorders, and with vision therapy we have seen significant changes in these children’s ability and enjoyment of reading."
Dr. Bradley Habermehl, President of the College of Optometrists in Vision Development (COVD) concurs. "We are delighted to see educators, such as Ms. Moore and Ms. Scola, embracing optometric vision therapy. We receive large numbers of thank you letters from parents who were at their wits end, thanking vision therapy for changing the lives of their children."