31 August 2010

It's back to school time and you know the routine. You're running around with your kids getting them their school supplies and clothes for the new school year. Maybe, you've got their bus schedule, their school schedule, and their after school schedule all ready to go. They've been to the pediatrician for their well check and they've had their vision evaluations.....or have they?

Here are 5 reasons to get your child's Vision Evaluated before school starts:

1. We don't read with our eyes closed and as long as this is the case, vision is involved in the reading and learning process. Optimizing visual performance means optimizing learning performance.
2. It's important to see clearly. Your child has to be able to sustain their focus for both distance and near work tasks. They also have to be able to efficiently shift their focus to and from various distances. Difficulty focusing can be immensely distracting in the classroom.
3. Going to school is hard work and having poor visual skills can make things even harder.
4. It's no fun to read when your eyes hurt. Visual inefficiencies can cause headaches, eyestrain, loss of place when reading, and poor comprehension.  Improving visual skills means more enjoyable reading.
5. "Homework? I want to go play-forget about homework". After a long day of school, it isn't easy to sit down and do more work. Visual efficiency makes classroom work go easier and makes homework go easier as well. Completing homework efficiently means more time to play!

I've said it before, and I'll say it again-when the process of vision is not efficient, it becomes an interference. Getting your child's visual system evaluated before school is taking a proactive approach to helping them academically. Sometimes glasses can be prescribed to help with visual inefficiencies. Sometimes it takes more than just glasses ie. Vision Therapy, to help with visual inefficiencies. But it is always worthwhile to improve visual function because it helps children perform better academically.