BY:  Dr. Karen Chao

Working with a child who is having difficulty with reading and learning can be
challenging.  With each failure it becomes more and more frustrating and emotionally
draining.  You are sitting in your dining room, working with your child, watching him read
the same paragraph for the third time.  But, this time, you notice that something doesn’t
look right with the way his eyes are moving, so you quickly call your eye doctor to
schedule an appointment.

You anxiously await your visit to the eye doctor, only to find out that “everything is fine.”  
Now what? Maybe it’s something else…. but what could it be?  Is he just an auditory
learner?

According to the American Public Health Association, “25% of students in grades K-6
have visual problems that are serious enough to impede learning.”  In addition, the
American Optometric Association has found that over 60% of children with learning
difficulties have undiagnosed vision problems.

This does not just refer to people who have never had an eye exam.    Many vision
problems go undetected because most people think that “20/20” means you have
perfect vision.  This couldn’t be further from the truth.  All that means is that you can see
the size of letter you are supposed to be able to see from 20 feet away.  In addition,
most eye doctors don’t test how well a child can see up close for the length of time
required to read and learn.

There are over 15 visual skills, in addition to being able to see 20/20, that are required
to read and learn.  So how do you know if your child has a vision problem or not?  

Regular eye exams typically evaluate only eye health, acuity (how clearly you can see the
eye chart), and the need for glasses.   In order to determine if your child has a vision-
based learning problem, you need to see a Developmental Optometrist who will provide
a developmental vision evaluation to test:  eye movement control, focusing near to far,
ability to sustain clear focus, eye teaming ability, depth perception, visual motor
integration, form perception, visual memory, and visual perceptual skills.

It is also vital that parents know the signs of a vision problem.  If your child struggles with
reading, please ask yourself the following questions.  Does your child:

•        Get frustrated trying to read?
•        Take much longer than expected to read or write?
•        Have trouble making out words?
•        Copy slowly or make frequent copying errors?
•        Find it harder to read at the end of the day than in the morning?
•        Omit or substitute small words (like “of” for “for”, or “if” for “of,” etc.)?

•        Skip words or repeat lines when reading out loud to you?
•        Reverse letters like b's into d's when reading?
•  Have a short attention span with schoolwork?

These are all signs of an underlying vision problem that is typically 100% correctable.  
How do you treat vision problems of this nature?  Sometimes they can be corrected with
glasses, but most of the time vision therapy is required.  Developmental Optometrists
provide vision therapy in their offices.  Research, published in the Journal of Learning
Disabilities, revealed that sixth graders with below-average reading skills improved their
test scores by up two grade levels after vision therapy.  

Vision therapy, similar to speech therapy and physical therapy, is therapy for the eyes.  It
involves a combination of supervised in-office therapeutic activities, along with activities
that are done at home.  The length of the program varies, depending on the diagnosis.  
Homeschoolers throughout the country have found success with vision therapy.

For more information on Developmental Optometry, Vision Therapy, and the critical link
between vision and learning, please visit:  www.optometrists.org/drkhchao/index.html
Attention Homeschool Parents:  
New Hope for Struggling Readers