Vision: A Learning Connection

Vision: A Learning Connection

What happens when there are visual issues? A child frequently may be avoiding reading, dislike fine motor activities, rub their eyes, tilt their head a lot, and have great difficulty with depth perception and eye hand coordination. They fuss, whine, and avoid near work. When you have a vision screening or your pediatrian gives you the "all clear" this means that the actual visual acuity is okay, BUT what IS NOT OKAY are the eye muscles and the connections in the brain to perceptual skills. Only Developmental Pediatric Optometrists look at the perceptual and eye muscle movements part of vision and learning.

When the body doesn't register movement appropriately, it is difficult for the brain to send the "endure" message to muscles. This impacts eye muscles, too. Children with low muscle tone especially always have low tone in their eyes causing great difficulty with enduring near work or copying from the board work. Think of all the challenges and ways we use vision in the classroom. Looking at words on a page and moving all the way across without losing the place, this is crossing midline with the eyes. If the child can't cross midline with their arms and hands, they can't with their eyes. You have to have this skill in order to understand the left to right movements for worksheets and reading! Other challenges are: looking for an assignment on the board amidst so many visual attention grabbers in the classroom, refocusing on the paper to write information, then up, then down, then up etc. Using two eyes together to move through the room without bumping or touching objects. This list is endless!

The modifications listed here can ease the amount of fatigue an individual is experiencing. For questions or suggestions regarding visual solution, please contact Dr. Clopton at the Center of Development.

You can also visit Dr. Clopton's own website for more info on vision and perceptual abilities at www.covd.biz