Vision and School Success

When their child cannot see a Coke sign or a deer as they drive down the road, parents realize that the child needs glasses. Parents do not know if their child sees only parts of letters at 14 inches or that the words wiggle on the page. If parts of letters are missing it is caused by astigmatism. Astigmatism is more prevalent in Hispanics and Native Americans than it is in Anglos. This problem may contribute to the higher dropout rate for Hispanics. If the child is farsighted, the print of a book held in his hand will appear blurry. If the words wiggle on the page, he is alternating the use of each eye. A child has no frame of reference other than his own vision so he assumes that everyone sees the same way he does. Because the other children read faster the child may label himself dumb, lazy and/or stupid. To be successful in school a child must see clearly at any distance, be able to aim, move, focus his eyes and see clearly at any distance. All these skills must be learned.

Children are born with 16 diopters of focusing ability. Every year they lose a fourth of a diopter. Children can use their great focusing range and pass many vision tests for a very short period of time. However, if the child has undetected vision problems his eyes will tire and he will be unable to keep a clear image. Such a child will lose concentration on reading or writing and may be labeled dyslexic, learning disabled and/or ADHD.

TV the best baby sitter ever invented, does not teach vision skills. While watching TV the eyes just stare straight ahead, not moving, or aiming up close, or changing focus. Vision skills cannot develop if there is no practice. Two good activities for developing vision skills are jacks and board games. Playing catch is a good eye teaming test for parents to use on their child. If the child cannot catch a ball the eyes are not working together as a team. Try tossing the ball from five feet first then gradually increasing the distance.

What can parents do about vision problems? The answer is obvious. Get your child an eye exam by an informed eye doctor. Not all eye exams are the same; a good eye exam takes about 30 minutes. A fifteen minute eye exam is not enough time to evaluate functional vision problems. If your child has had strabismus surgery, the problem is solved cosmetically, but functionally it has just started. Until the child can pass a stereopsis test for depth perception there is still a problem. Ophthalmology and optometry must work together as a team. How is his eye teaming and accommodative facility? Parents should ask the eye doctor: What is the child’s Near Point of Convergence? That is the child should be able to keep a pencil eraser in focus without seeing double as it moves from three feet towards his nose to about 4 inches. The distance at which the child first sees two images of the eraser is the Near Point of Convergence. Another problem arises because the standards for prescribing glasses were established by the Orinda survey which established when optometrists and ophthalmologists put glasses on children. Research shows one half diopter of farsightedness or near sightedness with ½ diopter of astigmatism interferes with a child reading fluently. If you get this part right, often alignment follows quickly.

What can schools do about vision problems? Since about 90 percent of learning occurs through the eyes, schools should have an optometrist on staff. The very best school vision screening will miss about 15% of the students needing help. Schools hire a speech therapist if the child cannot speak plainly. Schools hire an occupational or physical therapist if a child cannot walk right. With about 90% of learning through the eyes why haven’t schools hired an optometrist? We think schools could get more bang for their buck with an optometrist than any other professional. Research shows 85% of children fail a vision screening if eye movement is included in the screening. If 85% fail a screening, why screen?

Schools can provide eye training while teaching academics by having Lexia, My Reading Coach, and/or Fluent Reading Trainer on computers and have students working on those computers at least 90 minutes a week, but preferably 150 minutes a week. These programs train the eyes to work together as a team while teaching academics. These programs all have large letters at least 3/8 inch tall on a colored background with only a few letters or words on the screen at a time. Using the mouse is a required activity.