VISUAL PERFORMANCE IS THE MOST NEGLECTED COMPONENT OF A STUDENT IN TROUBLE

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Vision therapy helps reduce learning problems

"I feel like it was a miracle answer to our prayers."

Bradley's mother was grateful but had stumbled over the possibility that his visual abilities might be the factor preventing his success at school. They considered it as a last resort in their quest to solve his learning problems. Extensive professional tutoring did not improve his performance.

Matthew was struggling and things looked hopeless. The family had chosen to home school due to the disastrous experiences he had at public school. According to his mother, he was unsure of what was going on, didn't learn anything and was pulled out of the classroom most of the day for two years to receive speech therapy and was still slipping and struggling. Even now, he was taught at a 3rd grade equivalent and his age suggested he should be in the 6th grade.

Mason's mother now has tears of joy. Six months earlier, her tears were ones of sorrow over the embarrassment Mason was experiencing due to low reading ability. He repeated the 2nd grade and was still struggling in reading, writing, spelling and math in the 3rd grade. Efforts on the part of educators, psychologists and various therapists did not improve his academic performance.

Vision disorders are the most common handicapping condition in children.

Vision is a complex process that involves over 20 visual abilities and more than 65% of all the pathways to the brain. Beyond the common concerns of distance visual acuity (20/ 20) and eye structure (nearsightedness, farsightedness, astigmatism) the visual system is intimately involved with the acquisition, processing, integration and execution of information. It influences and is influenced by body posture and movement, manual manipulation and touch as well as the early use of speech.

As noted by the above students, visual system evaluation tends to be the most often neglected component of a student in trouble. If you really want to make change, look at vision. When all developmental processes are complete, vision will become the most dominant process in human behavior. How can this be? Just consider basic neurology. The main branch of the optic nerve travels to the visual cortex. There are nine additional branches, which feed visual data to other areas of the brain. One branch consisting of twenty percent of the fibers goes to the superior collicullis to mediate posture/ movement.

The visual process is powerful and pervasive.

In each eye there are 120 million rods and 7 million cones receiving light energy. In the retina alone, all of this information is collaborated and collected into one million nerve fibers traveling the optic nerve. Each visual channel alone provides as much information as the entire rest of the body.

A specialized visual evaluation consists of assessing bilateral integration, central fixation, monocular equality, biocular skills, binocularity, visual spatial abilities, visuomotor integration and visual-auditory integration.

In this day of Mangled Care, it is unwise to let the insurance carrier's profits derail your child's future. The quality of life they experience from proper vision development is the doctor's job, not an administrator. How about your situation? Are things truly getting better for your child? If it isn't, maybe a developmental optometrist should check your child's visual development.

A Chinese proverb aptly says, "If we do not change our direction, we are likely to end up where we are headed."

Bradley, Matthew and Mason's parents changed course and are now reaping the life changing results that optometric vision therapy gave them.

For well over two decades, Dr. Mark Roberts has helped children in difficulty. To enhance your world through vision therapy, visit www.drmarkroberts.com, call 336-460-0752 or email visdevmnm@aol.com