Oculomotor Dysfunction Affects Learning

In the classroom, approximately 80 percent of all academic work requires extremely fine, accurate eye movements and 1 in 5 children have an underdeveloped vision system that can contribute to several learning difficulties.
Here’s how an oculomotor dysfunction could be getting in the way of your child’s learning! This article is a great breakdown of the various visual skills that are needed to succeed in school

Read more: Oculomotor Dysfunction: Why my Child Skips Words, Can’t Cross the Midline, Experiences Double Vision (Integrated Learning Strategies)

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Read more about the article Handwriting for better learning and memory

Handwriting for better learning and memory

It’s not just what we write that matters, but how. Children read more quickly when they first learn to write by hand, and they are also better able to better generate ideas and retain information.

Printing, cursive writing, and typing on a keyboard were compared in a study of children in grades 2-5. When the children wrote text by hand, they consistently produced more words more quickly, and also expressed more ideas, when compared with the children who wrote on a keyboard. The children with better handwriting showed greater neural activation in areas associated with working memory when they were asked to think of ideas for a composition, as well as a greater overall activation in reading and writing networks.

Physically forming letters when writing is important for learning and memory!

Click here to read more in the NY Times

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Gift Ideas for Vision Development

Looking for some great gift ideas for any child? Here’s a list of some fun toys/games which also promote vision development!

Building Toys – Develop eye-hand coordination and visualization/imagination
-Mega Bloks
-K’NEX
-Building Blocks
-Legos/Duplos

Fine Motor Skill Toys – Develop visual-motor integration and fine motor skills
-Origami Sets
-Rainbow Loom
-Lite-Brite
-Pegboard and Pegs

Space Perception Toys – Develop depth perception and eye-hand coordination
-Ants in the Pants
-Fishin’ Around
-Operation
-Pick-up Sticks
-KerPlunk
-Jenga

Visual Thinking Toys and Games – Develop visual perceptual skills including: visualization, visual memory, visual discrimination, pattern recognition and sequencing. These skills are important for academics including mathematics, reading and spelling.
-Color Blocks and 1” Cubes
-Bejeweled Board Game
-Tetris Bop It
-Parquetry Blocks
-Perplexus
-Qwirkle
-Card Games (Old Maid, Go Fish, etc.)
-Dominoes
-Qbitz

Head on over to The Vision Therapy Center for the full list! (96 gift ideas)

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Read more about the article School Vision Screenings Are Not Enough

School Vision Screenings Are Not Enough

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Your child may have gotten a vision “screening” at school this year, but it’s not enough! Dr. Mini Randhawa explains why.

Even if your child has 20/20 vision and passes the screening, they still need to have a full eye exam. The Canadian Association of Optometrists recommends infants have their first eye examination between six and nine months of age, and annually during school years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=99&v=p6vPhFixBks

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Children’s Vision Month

Did you know? Each year, less than 14% of children entering grade one has had an eye exam by a doctor of optometry. This is despite the fact that an estimated one in four has a vision problem significant enough to impair their ability to learn.

Read how this can affect a child’s learning in the Doctors of Optometry  blog post all about Children’s Vision Month

Even if your child has “20/20 vision,” they still need to have an eye exam. The Canadian Association of Optometrists recommends infants have their first eye examination between six and nine months of age, at least one eye exam between the ages of two and five, and annually during the school years.

DOCTORS OF OPTOMETRY BLOG

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