As children progress in school, they face increasing demands on their visual abilities. The school years are a very important time in every child’s life. All parents want to see their children do well in school and do all they can to provide them with the best educational opportunities. But too often one important learning tool may be overlooked – a child’s vision. When certain visual skills have not developed, or are poorly developed, learning is difficult and stressful, and children will typically:
Some children with learning difficulties exhibit specific behaviours of hyperactivity and distractibility. These children are often labeled as having “Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder” (ADHD). However, undetected and untreated vision problems can elicit some of the very same signs and symptoms commonly attributed to ADHD. Due to these similarities, some children may be mislabelled as having ADHD when, in fact, they have an undetected vision problem. Studies have shown that vision deficiencies are responsible for more than 68% of reading disabled children. We also know that 80% of what we learn is through vision.
That’s where we step in. To ensure academic success, vision testing is critical. If a vision issue is detected, it may explain several of the learning disabilities your child may be struggling with. Imagine that you are 7 years old and trying to learn to read, but every time you look at the letters they seem to move around on the page and your eyes and head begin to ache. How would you enjoy reading? Now if you were told to do extra reading practice after school to read more and more to improve your reading when you can’t see the words clearly and singly do you think it will be beneficial? Of course not, the first step to be able to read is to see the letters clearly, singly and be able to follow along the line of print with your eyes. If you can’t it doesn’t matter how hard you try or how much you practice you will not be able to succeed. This is where we come in.
We help your child develop the foundational visual skills to be able to see adequately to perform the task of reading. We do not teach your child to read or provide specific reading supports. We simply help them use their vision adequately to do this.
