Is Vision Therapy Successful In Helping Children With Learning Disabilities?

By: Darin Browne

Vision therapy is discussed many times across the internet, with a number of people claiming vision therapy aided their child, and a few saying it had little effect. As a Behavioral optometrist who practices with vision therapy for children with learning disabilities all the time, I imagine it is worth exploring the efficiency of vision therapy when it comes to helping learning disabilities.

Let me say initially that there are various types of vision therapy on offer, and I think that their efficiency varies when it comes to treating learning disabilities. Some vision therapy deals solely with the teaming of the eyes and focusing, and it resembles the more traditional eye exercises previously offered by orthoptists.

However, I have been working in a distinctive form of vision therapy for the last 20 years, and I have seen the effectiveness of this in the learning abilities of the children I care for.

My viewpoint is simple: Nearly all the children I examine who have significant learning disabilities have a deficiency in visual skills. These underlying skills, which should have been enhanced over the years of preschool and early school grades, have, for what ever reason, either failed to pick up or are under developed.

In vision therapy we are presented with the possibility to invest time and effort into developing visual skills that really make a difference when it comes to helping children rise above learning disabilities. It's not only about the eyes, it is about developing genuine skills which go far beyond only eyeballs!

The skills enhanced by vision therapy include the following:

Eye movements- which facilitate children flow in their reading and stops them misreading words or skipping lines, and it also helps in ball sports.

Focus and Eye Coordination- which aids children concentrate and apply themselves to their school work.

Visualization and Recall- which aids children to proficiently recall words and spelling, giving them a large vocabulary to assist them to read.

Directionality- which helps children with learning disabilities overcome reversals, writing letters back to front.

Cross Patterning- which allows children to use both sides of their brain effectively.

Other developmental areas, including coding, sequencing, fine and gross motor, etc.

Now, it is straightforward to see how this can have a mammoth impact on children who demonstrate learning disabilities, and if we educate the right skills it will lay a groundwork for remedial reading work. Merely doing remedial reading does not provide the child more skills, but it becomes tedious and exasperating for both child and parent!

Quite simply, over the period of 6-8 months, the vision therapy I give can educate these skills in children with learning disabilities, and their learning ability skyrockets with it. I have researched and designed a program of vision therapy that can be done at home, where ever you are in the world, and instead of costing thousands it is astonishingly cheap.

Most importantly, it works, and works extremely effectively. How can it not, if we are training the skills children require to read, write and spell efficiently? If our children fight with these highly basic visual skills, then they will most often fight in learning, but the wonderful news is that, using the suitable techniques, we can teach these skills and we can see huge improvement in children with learning disabilities.

If you are worried about your child, then check out our website for more information and heaps of FREE gifts to help you with your child. I provide guarantee that we can get results with the best vision therapy, thus you have nothing to lose, and everything to gain!

Article Source: http://www.parentingarticlelibrary.com

To discover positive, holistic and effective solutions for learning disabilities you can start using right now, and for FREE Gifts that can help you and your child, visit Darin Browne's Website Children Learning Disabilities.