A Bright Child, But a Poor Student

Any unexplained learning problem is a potential vision-related learning problem.

As a parent, few things are more frustrating than watching your otherwise bright child struggle with learning. You may have spent countless hours and resources having your child tutored, only to see a slight improvement, or improvement that is unequal to the amount of effort. Perhaps you’ve even heard your child labeled as unmotivated, immature, or having attention issues.

According to Vision Solutions optometrist Dr. Erin Mayfield, your child may have an undetected visual or perceptual problem that no amount of tutoring, medication, or special classes can fix. “Different from eyesight, which is a function most of us are born with, vision and perception are the abilities to understand what we see and is a learned process,” she explains. “That’s why your child can pass a vision screening and be able to see letters on a whiteboard from the back of the room, but lack the visual and perceptual skills necessary to have it make sense to them. This makes school work incredibly frustrating, and the temptation to avoid it becomes overwhelming.”

Is Your Child at Risk?

• Difficulty concentrating. Cannot stay on task.
• Poor handwriting. Letters, words, or numbers that are not uniform. Unable to space words and math work properly on a given line.
• Reversals of numbers, words, or letters, such as a “b” for a “d.”
• Needing 3 hours to do 30 minutes of homework.
• When reading, skipping words or endings, rereading lines, or creating words not present.
• Able to spell verbally, but has difficulty passing written tests on the same material.
• Does not pay attention to detail, such as capital letters, periods, and columns.
• Suffers from headaches during school work.

How to Determine if Your Child Can Benefit from Vision Therapy.

The first step is to schedule a comprehensive eye exam with one of our eye doctors. While vision screenings are helpful, they don't assess important visual skills needed for learning, such as eye coordination and binocular vision.

To determine if your child would benefit from vision therapy, your Vision Solutions doctor will evaluate these skills and others important to your child’s visual and perceptual development. Some of the areas evaluated include:

• Visual memory – the ability to store and retrieve visual information.
• Eye movements – the ability to move the eyes efficiently across a page of print.
• Visual motor – eye-hand coordination needed for writing and copying.
• Spatial relationship – ability to understand how two pieces fit together.
• Eye teaming/focusing skills – the ability to maintain clear and single vision at various distances without discomfort or abnormal effort.

Vision Therapy Can Improve a Child’s Learning Abilities and Confidence.

Vision therapy is a non-surgical, evidence-based approach that aims to improve the way the eyes and brain work together. It is a remarkable treatment for the right patients and has helped thousands of kids go on to become successful learners and confident students.

At Vision Solutions, vision therapy is customized for each patient but typically consists of office visits once or twice a week of 30 to 60 minutes. The therapy sessions may be supplemented by take-home assignments.

During vision therapy, patients perform a series of painless exercises and activities that target the specific visual skills and functions that need improvement. This can include exercises to improve eye tracking, focusing, eye teaming, and visual processing. The duration and frequency of vision therapy can vary depending on the individual's needs and the complexity of their vision problem.

“Once kids begin to experience improvement, they don’t mind coming to therapy or performing their home assignments,” says Dr. Mayfield. “It serves as a personal validation of their intelligence and begins building their confidence and overall well-being. It’s  professionally rewarding to witness.”

Dr. Mayfield’s advice to parents is, “Do not accept labels such as unmotivated or attention deficit to describe your child. Often these labels are used by people who try to explain away a problem that is vision-based.”
 

Can you afford to pass up this possible explanation for your child’s learning difficulties?

Schedule an evaluation today.

Please call one of our offices and specify you are requesting a vision therapy evaluation.

Lamar (417) 682-3301, Nevada (417) 667-2560, or Webb City (417) 250-2828, Missouri.