Around this time of year most parents and teachers are focused on making sure their students are ready for the SBAC testing.
Eye coordination problems can cause a child to have difficulty making sense out of what they are reading, and result in poor performance on standardized tests. Often a child with vision-based learning problems such as eye coordination and eye movement disorders, has excellent verbal skills causing parents and educators to think the child must be “lazy”, “not trying hard enough”, “AD/HD”, “learning disabled”, etc.
Most people are not familiar with vision-based learning problems or the fact that a child can see the eye chart just fine and still have a vision problem. Having 20/20 eyesight merely means one can see a certain size letter at a distance of 20 feet, and that is just one of more than 17 visual skills required for academic success.
Vision-based learning problems can cause a bright child to:
* have low self-esteem and feel “dumb”
* spend hours doing homework (which should take 15-30 minutes)
* have poor grades in reading, spelling, math or writing
* be smart in everything but school
Frequent symptoms of students with visually-related learning problems are:
* gets headaches during or after reading
* letters or words run together or move when reading
* fatigues quickly when reading
* avoids reading or other close work
* often loses place or omits words when reading
* frequent signs of frustration
* difficulty copying from board or book
* reverses words, numbers or letters
* short attention span
If your child has any of these symptoms, be sure to schedule an appointment with Dr. Semenza.
For a more in-depth symptom checklist, click here! (https://mcusercontent.com/9ef464180f2697c5c0d4fcb72/files/badec107-4fcd-44f4-9098-b8deabba5b83/Symptom_Checklist.docx)
From Struggling to Success
“Throughout her course of vision therapy Nina showed steady improvement in her reading ability. She slowly came to see herself as a reader and gained confidence. As a benefit her schoolwork overall has shown improvement.” ~ J.G.
“Vision therapy has improved Jake’s “tracking” while reading. It has also helped Jake realize that it wasn’t him; it was his eyes that made it difficult to read. It has also given him the confidence that he did not have before in reading and in other school work. Thanks!” ~ G.W.
“Before vision therapy Olivia was 1.5 grade levels behind her peers. She worked really hard through three units (30 sessions) of vision therapy, and for the first time ever is reading at her grade level. It has even made math easier because she can read the problems and instructions easier.” ~ K.T.
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Help for Lazy Eye & Eye Turns – Without Patching or Surgery
There is no age limit! A lot of people we have seen have been told that if lazy eye or eye turns haven’t been corrected before the age of 9 years old, that it will never be corrected, or worse that they will go blind in their lazy eye. The good news is that we can help reverse most cases of lazy eye and eye turns without surgery – at any age!
Have you always been clumsy? Bumping into things which you swore weren’t there? Had difficulty with reading? Have trouble seeing 3D?
Whether you have had a head injury, stroke or have always struggled with reading or driving, have an eye turn or lazy eye – we can help.
Neurobiologist Shares How She Used to See Before Vision Therapy
We thought you might like to hear what an adult has to say about what her vision was like after 3 eye turn (strabismus) surgeries, now that she understands how the eyes are supposed to work. Dr. Sue Barry is a Neuro-biologist and professor at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, and author of the book, Fixing My Gaze which she wrote as a result of her experiences with her vision.
Dr. Barry explains what her vision was like as a child after strabismus surgery: “Even though my eyes appeared straight, I still didn’t use them normally.” “I had 20/20 eyesight with both eyes and no problem passing a standard school vision screening. Yet, my vision was abnormal because I did not use my two eyes together.” “I dreaded going to grade school. … when I looked down at the letters on the page, they didn’t stay in one place. This problem grew worse as the print got smaller….”
In grade school her performance on standardized tests was so poor the principal told her mother that she needed to be in special education. Her mother refused to believe this, and actually worked really hard to help her daughter succeed. Unfortunately, Sue Barry didn’t find out about vision therapy until she was an adult.
Her book is worth reading and is available on Amazon.com.