Someone recently mentioned that doing vision therapy at home may be harmful. I would like to politely disagree. As a college instructor, I have been teaching a
course to teachers regarding vision and reading scores and find that very simple vision exercises, done properly, accelerate a person’s ability to read and can
improve reading scores. Once a diagnosis is completed, ( I have created a foundational reading skills inventory - free on www.howtolearn.com). If aftter a visit to
the eye doctor, the person has no structural vision defects and does not need glasses, there is much that can be done at home to help children and adults read,
track more easily, stop skipping lines and remember what they read. I always recommend a visit to a behavioral or deveopmental optometrist first to determine
exactly what is needed. Many of these doctors will actually send vision therapy work home with their patients.
The key is to know whether the vision problems as revealed on the inventory are mild or severe and whether visits to the eye doctor for vision therapy are
necessary. Also, rather than build a house with no foundation as it were, and try teaching phonics or whole language to a child with poor developmental visual
skills, my experience over 25 years has shown that kids need proper visual skills in place before they read. And if they are having diffuculty reading, the very first
thing that needs checking is their visual/spatial/perceptual skills. Otherwise, children may suffer for years by a lack of comprehension, missing words as they read,
skipping lines, turning letters around, adding letters which are not really there, etc. All of these problems indicate a need for some vision therapy work, and much
of it can be done at home or school quite effectively and safely. I know of hundreds of teachers in public school settings helping children succeed by giving them
safe, effective vision exercises.
Thank you,
Pat Wyman, M.A.
Instructor of Education
Author, Learning vs Testing, Strategies That Bridge the Gap
Re: Vision Therapy at home -harmful?
Hi Pat,
You wrote “I always recommend a visit to a behavioral or developmental optometrist first to determine exactly what is needed. Many of these doctors will actually send vision therapy work home with their patients.”
What you are doing sounds very interesting and commendable. I agree with you completely on the need of vision skills to be in place before reading instruction is carried too far. I also feel that the best value in vision therapy comes from the offices which will encourage a lot of work be done at home, if possible.
However, when I expressed my opinion on doing vision therapy at home, there was nothing in the previous notes in that group of postings that indicated a need to get a proper diagnosis first. This is quite different from your “always recommend a visit to a behavioral optometrist…” comment above.
In other words, people here (and also the hundreds of teachers you talk about, I suspect) are often desperate for a solution to a reading problem. If they do attempt “vision therapy” they are often going to do so without following what you “always recommend,” and I fear that in at least some cases they will be doing the opposite of what would in fact be recommended by a behavioral optometrist.
This attitude is indicated in the posting by Rosie looking for a computer program to solve the problem. I’m not against computer programs—many optometrists use them—just cautious about unguided vision therapy.
Finally, one developmental optometrist’s very legitimate fear is that parents who have had their child’s teacher (or a purchased computer program) administer “vision therapy” will then incorrectly rule out a vision problem simply because someone who seems more knowledgeable will have claimed to have addressed the “vision side” of the problem…..Rod
P.S. Pat, without my going into all the “synapse stuff” in the previous thread, do you think there is anything to what I wrote there?
To Contact Pat
Anyone who wants to contact Pat with further questions can get information from her website: http://www.howtolearn.com/vision.html
What vision therapy programs are available for home use? Are there any that are computer-based. Have you seen the infomercial for a speed reading course called EyeQ www.infmind.com. It looks like it includes some vision therapy. Thanks for your insight.
Rosie