Vision and Learning
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Many kinds of vision problems reveal themselves most easily in behavior, posture and attitude.  These signs are usually associated most closely with long periods of visual work done at less than arm’s length from the eyes. You can easily identify vision problems simply by observing your child.  If you recognize more than a few signs, there is good reason to suspect a vision problem.
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Physical Complaints

1. Headaches when reading or desk work.
2. Car sickness.
3. Tired after a day at school.
4. Complains of blur even though regular eye exams have been normal.
5. Eyestrain during reading or desk work.
6. When reading, sees the print run together.
7. Covers an eye when trying to read.
8. Tilts or turns head to side to ignore one eye.
9. Squints when looking from near to far or vice versa.
10. Rubs eyes when reading.
11. Holds book too closely.
12. One eye turns in or out.
13. Lazy eye (amblyopia)
14. Your child had surgery for crossed eye but still has school problems.

Learning to Read

1. Confuses words with minor differences, such as “what” or “that”.
2. Fails to recognize same word in next line (poor word visual memory).
3. Skips over small words.
4. Reverses letters or words, such as “b” for “d” or “was” for “saw”.
5. Needs to use a finger or marker to hold place when reading.

 Reading to Learn

1. Takes forever to finish a book.
2. Rapidly tires out and loses comprehension when reading.
3. Avoids reading whenever possible.
4. Comprehension is better when using ears to listen to you read than when using eyes to read himself.
5. Has lower reading comprehension than intelligence would predict.

Getting it on Paper

1.  Doesn’t finish classwork in the allotted time.
2. Writes slowly or sloppy; words go up or down hill.
3. Struggles to get thoughts down on paper.
4. Mis-aligns digits or columns doing math.

Sports

1. Clumsy. Poor balance.
2. Can’t keep eye on the ball.
3. Avoids ball sports.
4. Misjudges pop flies in baseball.

Attention

1. Homework is a battle.
2. Displays attention problems when reading; attention is good for games.
3. Displays better attention when using ears to listen than when using eyes to read.
4. Is unable to sit still.
5. Needs to touch everything (unable to rely on vision alone).
6. Does well with math, except for word problems, but struggles with reading.
7. Cannot stay on task when reading or writing.
8. Poor eye contact.

Behavior

1. Child feels stupid.
2. Child is tired or angry after school.
3. Child’s struggle with schoolwork affects the whole family.
4. School performance could limit future career opportunities.

Millions of Learning Disabled People Get Misdiagnosed 
Academic success requires 17 different visual skills.  Many conditions which are treatable through vision therapy get misdiagnosed as ADHD, dyslexia, learning disability or worse, laziness or even stupidity.  These vision disorders are not detected through a “20/20” eye exam.
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Many people have never heard of vision disorders such as convergence insufficiency (CI).

How can we read a line of print if our eyes are jumping all over the place?

​CI is an eye condition which leads to some or all of the following: loss of concentration, slow reading, eye strain, headaches, blurred or double vision.

Approximately 1 in 4 children has a vision disorder, such as CI, that interferes with his/her ability to learn.

​Typical eye exams do not uncover more complex vision disorders. In addition, the affected student is usually unable to report his or her own problem.

 Treatment

We can evaluate the need for Vision Therapy which can help a child succeed in learning and achieve better grades. We are experienced in diagnosing, treating and managing many types of Binocular Vision disorders that can negatively affect day to-day activities such as focusing, reading and learning. We have seen that Vision Therapy can help with these issues both before and after they arise, thus, significantly improving a child’s or adult’s overall success.

This is a step by step process. To get started, please call our office at 212-265-4609 between Monday and Friday to inquire about vision therapy.

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