Students of all ages can struggle with focusing and learning problems that can impede their academic success. What many don?t know is that an estimated 80% of students with learning difficulties actually have an undiagnosed visual problem that could be contributing to their academic challenges. Additionally, 80% of a child?s learning in school is vision-based, so a problem with visual skills could negatively affect academic performance. A personalized vision therapy program with Opto-mization NeuroVisual Performance can help your child gain the visual skills they need to succeed.
How Can I Tell If My Child Has a Vision Problem?
Your child may display any number of the following symptoms or behaviors due to a vision problem:
- Frequent head tilting
- Headaches, dizziness, or eye strain
- Poor depth perception
- Tendency to close one eye
- Double or blurred vision
- Avoidance of visually demanding tasks
- Poor hand-eye coordination
- Poor reading comprehension
- Easily loses place or skips lines while reading
- Difficulty judging an object?s size or shape
- Difficulty focusing for extended periods of time
- Behavioral issues
It?s important to note that the only way to accurately determine whether your child has a visual problem is to bring them in for a functional visual evaluation where Dr. Cameron McCrodan or Dr. Scott Irvine will assess your child?s eye health and various visual skills. If a visual problem is detected, vision therapy may be recommended to treat the issue and restore healthy vision.
How Can Vision Therapy Improve Learning?
Vision therapy is a personalized series of in-house, weekly sessions that are meant to strengthen the eye-brain connection and ensure that both eyes work in unison to create a unified and clear image of their surroundings. Vision therapy has little to do with eye ?strength? or visual acuity (distance vision). Rather, it focuses on building and refining other visual skills, such as eye teaming and tracking ? skills necessary for efficient reading and learning.
The vision therapist will use various tools to aid in the therapeutic process, such as prisms, filters, balance boards, therapeutic lenses, and more. At the end of each session, the patient will be instructed to perform eye exercises daily until the next session as an at-home component to the program. Progress will be closely monitored to ensure there is an improvement.
By strengthening the eye-brain connection, scholastic tasks like reading and focusing will likely become easier for your child since less effort is needed to perform them. Increased ease in these areas will also boost your child?s confidence and self-esteem. Vision therapy has the potential to transform a struggling student into a thriving one.
Jump Start Your Child?s Academic Year
The summer months are the optimal time to begin vision therapy sessions to prepare for the upcoming school year. Especially in Covid-19 times, when most of a child?s learning may be on a computer, it?s the perfect time to determine if your child?s struggles are classroom-based or vision-based. Call Opto-mization NeuroVisual Performance today to book your child?s consultation with Dr. Cameron McCrodan or Dr. Scott Irvine and start them on the path to success.
Opto-mization NeuroVisual Performance provides vision therapy and other services to patients from Victoria, Nanaimo, Duncan, Vancouver Island, and throughout British Columbia.
