VISION, THE KEY TO LEARNING

With it being estimated that about 80% of what we learn is through our vision, it is understandable that a child’s eyes are constantly active. Without an effectively functioning visual system, learning in the classroom as well as on the sports field is compromised and the child cannot perform at his or her potential. As children progress through the educational system increasing demands are placed on their visual skills. The size of print in textbooks becomes smaller and the amount of time spent reading and studying increases significantly. Increased workload and homework place more demands on the child's eyes.

VISUAL SKILLS FOR SCHOOL

While 20/20 vision, the ability to see clearly, is essential, a child needs a number of abilities in order to understand, process and respond successfully to specific learning material and the school environment.

Visual Acuity

“After studying hard, Peter was upset to find that he had failed his test. On closer inspection, his teacher discovered that he had copied the questions incorrectly from the board because he was unable to read them clearly.” Children need to be able to see clearly and comfortably in the distance for viewing the board, at an intermediate distance for the computer and up close for reading a book.

Peripheral Vision

Peripheral or indirect vision is the awareness of things outside the centre of the gaze while looking straight ahead, awareness of things “in the corner of one’s eye”.

Eye Focusing

This is the ability to keep both eyes accurately focused and to maintain clear vision while quickly changing focus, such as when looking from the board to a book on the desk and back.

Eye Teaming

Thembi’s mother reported that her daughter tired easily while reading, complained that “she was seeing double” and would cover one eye to compensate. Eye teaming is the ability to coordinate and use both eyes together when moving them along the page while reading, or when trying to hit or catch a ball in sport.

Eye Tracking

Eye tracking is the ability to keep the eyes on target and move them smoothly along a printed page or follow a moving ball while playing sport. “When my daughter Rachel started school, her teacher noticed that she had a lack of concentration and had great difficulty reading, often losing her place. Doing homework exercises with her was almost impossible. Simple reading exercises would often take hours.”

Eye-hand Coordination

This ability allows one to use the eyes and hands together to perform tasks, to use visual information to monitor and direct the hands, for example when drawing a picture or trying to catch a ball.

Visual Perception

This is the ability to recognise and tell the difference between letters and organise them into words and ideas. The main purpose of reading is comprehension, the ability to understand what is read, remember the details and form a mental picture of the story. These skills all make up visual perception.

Depth Perception

Depth perception is the ability to perceive the world in three dimensions (3D) and to judge the distances between objects, allowing us to tell if something is near or far. The brain achieves it by processing different images from each eye and combining them to form a single 3D image.

Visual Skills for Sport

In order to succeed at sports, children need clear distance vision, a wide field of vision or peripheral vision, good depth perception and satisfactory eye-hand coordination.

SIGNS OF VISUAL PROBLEMS

“Our first sign of David’s vision problem was when he started school. We thought it was just laziness or perhaps a personality conflict with his teacher. He avoided reading and homework was a struggle for us both, often ending in tears of frustration. As time went on, the problem just got worse when more reading skills were being required at school.”

If any of the visual skills are poorly developed or not functioning adequately, a child will have to work harder to learn effectively, placing extra strain on the visual system. As a result, he may experience headaches or eye fatigue, and may be reluctant to go to school or avoid reading and doing homework. He may develop compensatory behaviours, such as closing one eye or tilting his head when reading. Other children may tease him adding to his feelings of inadequacy and loss of confidence, particularly if he is unable to participate in sport and social activities at the level of his peers.

Children are not always able to tell their parents that they are struggling at school, either because they are unaware of the specific difficulty or are unable to express what they are experiencing. Certain signs may alert teachers and parents that something is not right.

Tilting his head or covering one eye might be an indication that the eyes are misaligned and unable to work together effectively. Sitting too close to the television, holding hand-held devices too close to the eyes or lowering the head while reading are all possible signs of poor vision. By squinting, the child may be able to temporarily improve the clarity of his vision. If the child complains of eye pain or headaches after reading, he may be overexerting his eyes in an effort to focus or reduce blurred vision.

Other signs of problems include rubbing the eyes excessively, short attention span or difficulty concentrating in class or doing homework, avoidance of reading or close activities, losing the place or using his finger to keep the place when reading, leaving out or confusing words, or difficulty remembering the details of what was read or even the gist of it.

COMPREHENSIVE EYE EXAMINATION

Recognising signs of vision problems and making an appointment with your optometrist is the first step towards helping your child. As with most problems, the earlier a problem is detected and diagnosed, the sooner it can be managed and the better the long-term prognosis will be. As well as assessing visual acuity, a comprehensive eye examination determines the child’s visual skills and whether there are problems that may be impacting his ability to perform satisfactorily in the classroom. Because vision changes can occur as visual demands at school increase, regular visits to the optometrist are recommended so that problems can be monitored and dealt with when necessary.